In a recent case brought before the High Court in London England, the judge ruled that the plaintiff could serve the defendant, by airdropping the notice as an NFT, into the plaintiff’s stolen digital wallet. The ruling sets a new legal precedent offering the use of a digital solution in serving lawsuits.
UK law firm Giambrone & Partners brought the case on behalf of their client, Fabrizio D’Aloia against crypto trading platforms Binance Holdings, Poloniex, OKX, Gate.io and Bitkub.
The case revolves around allegations that persons unknown had created fraudulent clone online brokerage websites, resulting in the alleged theft of Mr D’Aloia’s two digital wallets.
New Legal precedent issued by UK Court
The High Courts decision is the first time in England and Wales that a judge has allowed the use of blockchain technology to send an NFT containing legal court documents informing the recipient that they face a legal issue will undoubtedly increase.
The decision makes changes to civil procedure rules in the UK. Beforehand, plaintiffs had to serve lawsuits to a physical address by mail or personal service.
Electronic communication is also used, but usually with prior consent from both parties. In the past lawsuits have been sent using fax machines, Facebook, Instagram, and utilizing contact forms on a website.
The High court decision now adds blockchain to the electronic means for serving legal documents relating to crypto and NFTs.
Furthermore, the UK court order also acknowledged the crypto exchanges are Trustees of your cryptocurrencies. Therefore, they have an obligation to protect your crypto.
This ruling follows the New York Supreme Court’s decision to allow notice of proceedings via NFT. The NY case concerned the use of an NFT to serve an anonymous hacker a restraining order via NFT.
The rise in NFT and Crypto Asset Fraud
The recent court decisions may help in combatting the continuing rise in crypto and non-fungible token fraud. With the huge rise in fraud around the crypto sphere and calls for regulation, anything that halts or reduces losses to scumbags is welcome.
This last year has seen a huge increase in scams related to crypto assets. According to the FTC, over 46,000 people reported losing over $680 million to crypto scams in 2021. Whilst the first quarter of 2022 saw losses of $329 million.
The vast majority of crypto fraud is related to false investment prospects with large returns.
Joanna Bailey, head of banking and financial fraud litigation at Giambrone & Partners stated.
“obtaining this judgment is extremely significant and has opened up the potential to assist many more of our defrauded clients to recover their money lost to crypto fraud.”
Using NFTs to Serve Lawsuits
The latest UK ruling allowing a lawsuit to be delivered using an NFT is a step forward in decreasing fraud in a space where scammers feel they can act with impunity.
Dmitri Beziantes an associate at Giambrone states,
“I am confident that this latest judgment using NFT service has the potential to show the way to digital service over the blockchain, with all the benefits of immutability and authentication, becoming the usual practice in the future on legal matters related to the digital world.”
Let’s hope he is right and we can begin to turn the tide against unscrupulous characters that seem to beset the crypto world and want to take your money.
