This court order comes over a year after Einstein Exchange founder Michael Gokturk was sued by Scott Nelson, a Vancouver entrepreneur, in 2019, for breach of contract related to the bitcoin.
Since 2019, the price of bitcoin has skyrocketed.
The judgment also comes over a year after Gokturk’s firm, Einstein Exchange, folded.
In November 2019, the British Columbia Securities Commission began investigating Einstein Exchange and seized the company’s assets.
The BC Supreme Court found although Nelson paid Gokturk the 50 bitcoin in 2019, Gokturk never paid back Nelson under the original contract.
The Einstein Exchange was the second Canadian crypto exchange to shutter in 2019, following the collapse of another BC-based crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX.
This led to a major overhaul of Coinsquare’s executive team, which included co-founder and CEO Cole Diamond being replaced by Stacey Hoisak.
In March, the CSA issued new guidance for platforms facilitating trading in security tokens or instruments or contracts involving crypto assets.