Defending decentralisation

We follow up on our previous article 'Cryptocurrency fraud – Remedies – Cryptocurrency as property' (where we covered the incremental approach taken by the Courts in multiple jurisdictions recognising cryptocurrencies as property) to cover how we may assist you if your cryptocurrencies were stolen from you, or where a hot wallet service provider refuses to allow you to withdraw your cryptocurrencies.

As the aphorism goes "not your keys, not your coins". For good or for worse, this key concept of decentralisation underpins the dangers in placing or staking your cryptocurrencies in cryptocurrency exchanges or offchain centralised wallets to, amongst others, earn interest. Despite the decentralised nature of cryptocurrencies, can a centralised authority like the Courts assist you to recover your cryptocurrencies from cryptocurrency exchanges or rogue providers of wallet services?

We explore these questions here.

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Defending decentralisation

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Contributors

Lauren Tang

Justin Gan

Yi Lei Tan

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