By
Bhushan Akolkar
January 4th, 2024
Roger Ver took legal action after the company’s derivatives-based arm, bit.com failed to release his $8 million withdrawal request to him in June 2022.
Popular crypto businessman Roger Ver has sued Smart Vega Holding Limited, a subsidiary of Matrixport. Although the case has been on since 2022, the report just came to light after Ver recently spoke about what transpired.
Roger Ver Believes Wu Has Personal Vendetta against Him
According to Ver, he took legal action against Matrixport in August 2022. This was after the company’s derivatives-based arm, bit.com failed to release his $8 million withdrawal request to him in June. Ver claims that his request at the time was specifically blocked by Jihan Wu – co-founder at Matrixport.
Wu may have linked Ver to his losses at CoinFLEX and had personal issues to grind with him, the crypto businessman suggests. He noted:
“The reason my funds were unavailable for withdrawal was because Wu had instructed Respondent not to release them to me.”
Ver explained further that Wu was acting based on the belief that he was owing sums to a third party that also owed sums to him. However, Ver refutes those claims, insisting that Wu could not have been more wrong.
In an affidavit filed to the Supreme Court of the Seychelles in September 2022, Ver wrote that Wu’s claims are both false and irrelevant. He also added that Wu was allowing personal sentiments to come in the way of business.
Matrixport Counters
Meanwhile, Matrixport, via a spokesperson has also shared a counter-claim to Ver’s account of the events. According to the company’s head of public relations and brand Ross Gan, Ver was not exactly honest with what went on.
Gan admits that Ver is a bit.com customer but an investigation revealed that he had engaged in margin trading irregularities. This “breach of his contractual obligations” meant that he was subject to a penalty fee. So, Ver was always free to withdraw his funds after the penalties payable must have been deducted.
However, Gan noted that Ver had an issue with the penalty payable, and that was where conversations broke down.
Gan says that Matrixport will await the court’s verdict on the case and agree to whatever outcome it is. But in the process leading up to the ruling, the company has decided to withhold the funds. In a show of willingness, however, the company has also offered to put the disputed amount in a third-party custody account, Gan revealed.