BitMEX Trader Seeks 324.8 BTC Back, Leaving Other Trades Untouched Of the roughly 2,294 trades Lewis Barber placed on BitMEX, his lawsuit challenges 1,053. All of them lost money.
He wants the exchange’s operator to return the Bitcoin lost on those trades, but is not asking the court to revisit the rest of his trading, according to a claim reviewed by Guardian.
Barber, a British software engineer, is seeking 324.8 Bitcoin or damages of equivalent value from HDR Global Trading Limited, which operated BitMEX. As of October 1, that amounts to £20.4 million.
His trades were placed through five accounts between 2018 and 2022.
Why Barber Seeks Repayment
Barber argues that BitMEX entered into the disputed perpetual swaps without the authorisation required in the UK.
He relies on Section 26 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, under which a customer may seek the return of money or property transferred under an agreement made during unauthorised regulated activity.
However, the trader applies that argument to the 1,053 losing trades, rather than seeking to unwind every transaction on his accounts.
The court hasn’t yet decided whether the provision covers those trades or how much Barber could recover. Even if an authorisation breach is proven, Section 28 lets a court enforce the agreement, or allow the provider to keep the transferred property, if it considers that just and equitable.
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The Dispute over BitMEX’s UK Activity
For Barber’s argument to succeed, the court must also consider BitMEX’s activity in the UK.
His claim says the platform allowed users to select the country as their place of residence and did not block access from there. It also cites a BitMEX advertisement published in The Times in January 2019.
In March 2020, while Barber was still trading, the Financial Conduct Authority warned that BitMEX might be providing financial services or products in the UK without authorisation.
The warning did not determine whether Barber’s particular trades breached UK rules; that question remains part of his case.
Barber’s lawyers at Seladore Legal are inviting other former UK-based BitMEX clients to register their interest. The firm says it will assess each person’s trading history and circumstances before deciding whether they have a potential claim.
Barber is not the only UK crypto-derivatives customer pursuing an authorisation-based claim. As Finance Magnates reported, 1,692 traders have brought a separate lawsuit alleging that Binance sold them derivatives it was not authorised to offer. Neither case has established liability for the exchange concerned.
