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Last Tuesday (25 July 2023), the Singapore High Court published its decision of ByBit Fintech Ltd v Ho Kai Xin and others [2023] SGHC 199 in which the court held that a cryptocurrency holder has a legally enforceable property right recognised by common law.

This is a landmark judgment, as it is the first time that a common law court has made such a judicial decision. In this brief client update, we set out below a summary of the facts and the judges grounds for the decision before concluding with our brief comments to the impact that this decision may have upon the crypto space.

The facts

Grounds for the decision

In his decision, the judge (Justice Philip Jeyaretnam) stated that there were 2 issues to be determined in this matter:

For Issue 1,

For Issue 2,

Brief concluding thoughts

This case is significant as this is the first time that a common law court has made such a decision. Previously, the courts in Singapore (and elsewhere) had in granting interlocutory injunctions recognised that there is at least a serious question to be tried or, at the least, a good arguable case that crypto assets are property capable of being held on trust. In doing so, it was not necessary for the courts (then) to determine whether such digital assets are choses in action or another novel type of intangible property. In this landmark decision, the Singapore High Court went further and expressly decided that the crypto asset in question (in this case USDT) was indeed property capable of being held on trust and hence enforceable in court.

Going forward, the express recognition by the Singapore High Court of a crypto asset holder having a legally enforceable property right means that, in practice, crypto assets will be provided greater legal protection to cryptocurrency owners in enforcing their rights in respect of their digital assets.

See the article here:
Singapore High Court recognises cryptocurrency as a form of ... - Lexology