The High Court of Singapore has issued an injunction prohibiting the sale of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs in connection with a loan dispute. This was announced by the law firm Withers KhattarWong, representing the plaintiff.
“The international law firm Withers KhattarWong, on behalf of a Singapore NFT investor, secured a global court injunction prohibiting the sale and transfer of ownership of the rare BAYC token,” the statement said.
The case concerns BAYC #2162, for which the average transaction value is 7.98 ETH (~$16,200 at the current rate). On the OpenSea platform, the NFT is marked as related to ‘suspicious activity’. This tag prevents the owner from listing it for sale.
As of writing, the average price of BAYC tokens stands at 95 ETH ($193,040), according to OpenSea.
According to the Singapore Judiciary’s website, the plaintiff in the case was Janesh Rajkumar, with the defendant listed as an ‘unknown person’ hiding behind the nickname chefpierre. It is possible that the collector chefpierre.eth.
According to Withers KhattarWong, on 19 March 2022 the parties entered into a loan agreement secured by BAYC #2162 on the NFTfi platform. In the event of default, the ownership of the NFT would be transferred to the creditor.
On 20 April 2022, a refinancing agreement was signed. The parties also agreed to a potential extension of the refinanced loan.
The plaintiff was unable to repay the funds within the stipulated period but retained the option to extend the deadline under the earlier agreement.
Lawyers say that chefpierre did not comply with the extension agreement, instead triggering the loan’s collateral recovery. This allowed him to move the token from NFTfi’s escrow account to a personal wallet.
Rajkumar asked the court to compel chefpierre to return the token in exchange for repayment of the loan.
As reported in April, amid the launch of the Otherside metaverse, the floor price of BAYC NFTs reached a historic high above $430,000.