The UK High Court declared stablecoin Tether property, the first English court verdict on cryptocurrencies following a full trial.
Tether's legal standing was a preliminary question in a fraud victim's lawsuit involving stolen crypto, including Tether, offloaded via crypto mixers and exchanges.
“USDT attract property rights under English law,” High Court of Justice Deputy Judge Richard Farnhill ruled Sept. 12.
USDT is “rather a distinct form of property not premised on an underlying legal right” and may be traced and trust property, the court said.
He cited a “strong line of authority” that cryptocurrencies are property from a 2019 court ruling that wasn't made at trial. It also supported the England and Wales Law Commission's 2023 digital assets report classification as property.
This judgment comes one day after a UK government bill would define NFTs, bitcoin, and carbon credits as “things” and “personal property” under property rules.
The court decided that victim and suit plaintiff Fabrizio D'Aloia failed to prove that Thai exchange BitKub was “enriched” by receiving 400,000 USDT, 46,291 of which was allegedly traceable to his scammers.
Farnhill admitted the scam but didn't believe crypto mixers sent D'Aloia's USDT to BitKub.
Bitkub's Quillon Law partner Nicola McKinney told Cointelegraph that the judge found USDT could be identified in mixed pools, but D'Aloia “could not evidence on the balance of probabilities that any of his USDT could be traced to the relevant Bitkub wallet.”
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