The Singapore High Court has recognised the stablecoin USDT as property that can be held in trust. This is evidenced by the решение in the Bybit case dated 25 July.
The trading platform filed a lawsuit against its employee Ho Kay Sin, accusing her of breach of employment contract and abuse of fiduciary duties. She allegedly transferred more than $4.2 million in USDT to personal wallets, as well as an undisclosed amount of fiat to a personal bank account.
During the proceedings Bybit sought a declaration that the aforementioned assets were held in trust by the employee. In turn Ho accused her cousin Jason Theo of theft and claimed that he owned the addresses to which the funds were sent.
After examining the circumstances, the Singapore High Court concluded that Jason “does not exist or did not play the role he claimed” and ordered the respondent to return the assets to Bybit.
«The owner of a crypto asset, in principle, has an intangible property right recognised in common law as property in claims and, thus, enforceable in court», the judge’s verdict said.
The ruling also cites public consultations by the Monetary Authority of Singapore from 3 July 2023. The document “reflects the reality that, in practice, it is possible to identify and segregate digital assets.” This suggests that cryptocurrencies can be held in trust, the court added.
Earlier in July, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple’s software sales and other distributions of the XRP token do not constitute an offer and sale of securities, i.e., the coin is not considered a security.
The U.S. regulator CFTC, in its suit against Binance, is considering a number of cryptocurrencies as a commodity. The platform has already filed a motion to dismiss this suit.