BiT Global Backs Down: Lawsuit Against Coinbase Over WBTC Delisting Gets Dropped

Another day, another crypto legal showdown fizzles out—this time with BiT Global waving the white flag against Coinbase.

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) got the boot from Coinbase's listings last quarter, sparking fury—and now, silence. BiT Global's lawsuit? Gone faster than a meme coin's liquidity.

Why the retreat? Speculation's rampant: Maybe the legal fees outweighed the pride, or perhaps someone finally read the fine print in Coinbase's terms of service. Either way, it's a win for the exchange—and another L for crypto firms trying to fight centralized gatekeepers.

Funny how these 'decentralized' purists keep running to traditional courts when things don’t go their way. The irony’s thicker than a Bitcoin maximalist’s hopium.

Dispute over custody shift

BiT Global initially filed suit in December, weeks after Coinbase announced that WBTC WOULD be delisted from its platform. The exchange said the token no longer met its listing standards, citing governance and risk concerns.

Days earlier, BitGo, the primary custodian for WBTC, had revealed a new partnership with BiT Global to diversify the token’s Bitcoin reserve holdings outside the US.

BiT Global was set to serve as a co-custodian, with reserves partially relocated to Hong Kong. The move sparked criticism in the crypto industry due to BiT Global’s known ties to Sun, who was facing regulatory probes in the US at the time.

Coinbase argued that allowing WBTC to fall under Sun-affiliated control posed an “unacceptable risk” to user security and market integrity.

BiT Global, in turn, alleged that Coinbase’s rationale masked a conflict of interest. The lawsuit accused the exchange of using the delisting to undermine a competing product, WBTC, in favor of its own wrapped bitcoin token, cbBTC, which Coinbase launched shortly afterward.

The firm described the delisting as a “cash grab” designed to boost cbBTC’s market share by sidelining its main rival.

Legal setback preceded withdrawal

The case suffered a major blow in March when Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguín denied BiT Global’s motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the firm had not demonstrated imminent harm from the delisting.

By May, during a hearing, the judge signaled that she was inclined to grant Coinbase’s motion to dismiss the case entirely, citing a lack of legal grounds to proceed.

With the court leaning heavily in Coinbase’s favor, BiT Global opted to drop the case before a formal ruling was issued. The company has not provided a public explanation for the withdrawal and did not respond to media inquiries.

Coinbase, for its part, reaffirmed its stance following the dismissal. The exchange’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said in a social media post on June 9:

“We have zero plans to relist WBTC.”

The case highlighted how custody decisions and token listing policies are becoming flashpoints in an industry still lacking unified regulatory oversight. While WBTC remains the dominant wrapped Bitcoin token by market cap, Coinbase’s CBBTC has grown rapidly in adoption since its launch.