Good luck to the judge. Commodities laws still apply so this will be interesting to follow. They had to sue or they would be sued themselves (which they might

Good luck to the judge. Commodities laws still apply so this will be interesting to follow. They had to sue or they would be sued themselves (which they might regardless), but there is no law restricting you actually from inflating the market value of an item (or a security). Their advantage is that he doesn't have a lawyer (or claims to) -- which is a stupid move; and that they froze his gains (another stupid move). If a hack is actually involved under Canadian law we shall see but a civil lawsuit is not unlikely to dictate that. He misled their market maker, not the holders. Of course without reading the case one can not say anything and has an incomplete view, but they are trying to shift blame here. There is precedent of course, when Oil futures went negative and in the end brokers paid the difference -- as their software wouldn't allow people to trade non-negative ranges. tl;dr: I think they are still on the hook for the lost funds back in the E.U./U.K.