Singapore High Court Has Declared Crypto As Property

A Singaporean high court has given a unique ruling regarding crypto assets. The court’s Judge Philip Jeyaretnam decreed that crypto is property and thus can be kept in trust. In addition to this, the judge mentioned that he does not recognize any dissimilarity between fiat money, shells, or crypto as long as the respective objects share value developed by their mutual faith.

Singaporean High Court Classifies Crypto and Fiat Currency in the Same Category

The judge gave the respective decree in a lawsuit that was put forward by Bybit (a well-known crypto exchange) against its previous employee called Ho Kai Xin. The crypto exchange asserted that the respective employee transacted nearly 4.2M worth of Tether from the platform to the private accounts possessed by her.

On the other hand, the defendant has accused a cousin (who was not present there) of administering the respective accounts. Nonetheless, the court has directed Bybit’s former staff member to give back the respective funds. Although the ruling may appear obvious, it comprises a few formulations significant for the juridical position of crypto assets.

Jeyaretnam categorized the swindled crypto assets and USDT tokens as property in general. The judge also rebuked the common suspicion that the crypto assets do not contain any underlying value. With this ruling, the judge has also categorized crypto among the “things in action.” According to the common law in Britain, it denotes a property type over which someone can claim personal rights without any physical possession.

In the respective ruling, Jeyaretnam referred to the consultation paper that was released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The respective document will implement custody and segregation requirements in the case of the tokens dealing with digital payment. If it is practical to detect as well as segregate this type of digital assets, holding the respective assets should also be legally possible, the judge remarked.

British Court Rules NFTs as ‘Private Property’

The decision cites Order 22 of the country’s Rules of Court 2021. It says that “movable property” takes into account shares, bonds, money deposits, debt, cash as well as the rest of the securities. It also includes cryptocurrency, membership in societies or clubs, or the rest of the digital currencies. In May last year, the London-based High Court of Justice also made a significant development in this respect.

The court decreed that non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) denote “private property.” The respective decision is considered to be crucial in the case of further moves to advance the NFT sector. Some experts have also commented on this. They labeled the respective ruling as a “great precedent” for the protection of the NFT investors. They think this would increase the confidence of the investors expecting protection from British courts concerning property rights.

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