Cryptocurrency exchange operator ruled in breach of contract, Courts & Crime News & Top …

The Court of Appeal has ruled in a landmark case that virtual currency exchange operator Quoine must pay damages for wrongfully reversing a number of transactions on its platform.

The apex court yesterday rejected Quoine’s argument that it was entitled to unilaterally cancel the seven orders – placed by trader B2C2 to sell ethereum for bitcoin – on the basis the transactions were a mistake.

Quoine had argued that the parties who transacted with B2C2 were under the mistaken belief that the trades were at market price and that B2C2 knew of this mistake.

The case is the first legal dispute in Singapore involving cryptocurrency. It is also believed be the first in the Commonwealth to deal with the question of how the legal doctrine of mistake should be applied when contracts are made by computerised trading systems, without human involvement.

The case will now centre on assessing how much damages should be paid to B2C2.

Both companies use complex computer systems to place buy and…