Court Reopens Case Against binance

A Florida appellate court has reopened a lawsuit against Binance over the theft of roughly 1,000 Bitcoins in 2022. The case is returning to the docket after the court ruled that the platform may have had sufficient ties to Florida to justify handling the matter locally.

According to Bloomberg, the court reinstated the lawsuit, which accuses Binance of failing to respond in time and not freezing the stolen funds after the theft was reported. The victim, Michael Osterer, claims he lost the equivalent of 80 million dollars. Hackers allegedly withdrew around 1,000 BTC from his wallet, and before the platform reacted, the funds passed through a Binance account and were subsequently withdrawn.

The case had previously been dismissed due to a lack of jurisdiction. However, the court now concluded that Binance’s use of U.S.-based infrastructure—such as Amazon Web Services—as well as the operations of entities serving American users, provide grounds for the lawsuit to proceed in Miami-Dade County.

Osterer accuses the exchange of negligence, breach of contract, and enabling the laundering of stolen assets. He is seeking full reimbursement of the lost funds plus interest. The case now moves back to a lower court, and the decision may encourage other victims to pursue legal action against international exchanges that have so far claimed they lack sufficient ties to specific U.S. states.