The Hong Kong High Court (“Court”) has, for the first time, confirmed that cryptocurrencies constitute “property” under Hong Kong law and are capable of being held on trust. The.
Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls, wants English law to be at the forefront of developments relating to cryptoassets and smart contracts. In his thought-provoking foreword to.
Is the law finally catching up with crypto? lawgazette.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lawgazette.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Introduction
Since the creation of bitcoin by “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2009, the number of crypto-currencies has exponentially increased to over five thousand. This is in spite of the cold reception from regulators in many jurisdictions, including Nigeria. In 2020, Nigeria generated over US$400 million worth of crypto-transactions, ranking third globally in terms of volume of crypto-currency trade. A potential implication of this trend, is the possibility of insolvency proceedings involving crypto-currencies or crypto-assets. The peculiar characteristics of crypto-assets are likely to pose unique challenges in such proceedings. This discourse examines some of these potential challenges, drawing lessons from some common law jurisdictions.
For the matrimonial finance and private client lawyer, crypto-assets can form a major part of a client s estate and we are seeing them with increasing frequency. It is vital that we can identify, value and understand them, and advise on their implications for clients, for others interested in client assets, and to assist the court, if necessary.
Where are we now with crypto-assets?
Although crypto-assets were born as recently as 2008 with Bitcoin following the worldwide banking crash, fewer than 13 years later Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and similar crypto-currencies and tokens have generated surging interest. At the time of writing on 18