The distasteful reasons behind the lawsuit
VanEck is a renowned global investment management firm. It is currently facing a lawsuit from its former-partner SolidX, a blockchain firm.
The problem quoted by SolidX behind the lawsuit is over the Bitcoin ETF filed by VanEck for SEC approval fifteen days ago.
VanEck holds a record of being the first company to register a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) complied to the Investment Company Act in 2017. In contrast, SolidX has been trying to launch a Bitcoin ETF to market since 2015.
When theThe two firms joined hands in June 2018. SolidX proclaimed that its rich experience with crypto would act as a complement to the extensively strong background of VanEck resulting in a beneficial venture.
However, they withdrew their recently introduced joint application for a BTC ETF in September 2019. This eventually led to a separation of the firms in August 2020.
The complaint registered by SolidX chronicles the separation as a “bad faith termination” of their contract.
VanEck’s recent announcement of a new Bitcoin ETF
VanEck’s announcement of filing a fresh application for the Bitcoin ETF came on December 31.
The lawsuit was then filed in response to the aforementioned announcement. The lawsuit highlights that VanEck’s SEC filing makes some problematic claims.
To mention in details, the former suggested that the investment management firm was “surreptitiously” working to establish its own Bitcoin product even when it has officially announced its amalgamation with SolidX in front of the world.
The blockchain firm also remarks that it is bad enough that VanEck is using SolidX’s work for competition. Moreover, VanEck’s registration statement could also be termed as plagiarism. The structure of this proposed BTC ETF is considerably identical to that of SolidX’s proposed product.
In other news, VanEck also launched a physically-backed Bitcoin exchange-traded note in November. It has been created for Germany’s Deutsche Börse Xetra market.
Thus, SolidX’s major argument revolves around how VanEck had agreed for the venture to access the former’s expertise on crypto assets. However, it started announcing products in direct competition just within a few days of their terminated agreement.
The response of VanEck is yet awaited on the registered lawsuit. The readers will have to stay connected for the future updates on the same.
