Judgement on User Assets; Cryptocurrency Exchange Cryptopia

The cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptopia, has notified users that the New Zealand High Court has ruled on the status of compromised assets.  On 14th January 2019, the cryptocurrency exchange experienced a security breach which lead it’s business closure.

In a tweet thread published on April 8, the exchange shared a 74-page court document. It detailed the ruling, summarizing the following:

“Today, on April 8, 2020, Judge Jendor ruled first. First, the cryptocurrency is” property “[…]. Second, the account holder’s cryptocurrency was held in multiple trusts separated by individual crypto asset types. This means that the cryptocurrency is favourably owned by the account holder and not a company asset.”

Judge’s Ruling on the Case

The now acquitted Cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia was the target of a security breach in January 2019. The breach lasted two weeks from discovery until the exchange regained control of the wallet.

In today’s ruling, Judge Gendall revealed that the assets of exchange users are held in multiple trusts, each grouping account holders holding a particular type of digital asset.

As a result, account holders within each particular group are treated as co-beneficiaries of the same trust.

Regarding the eligibility of cryptographic assets under New Zealand trust law, Judge Gendall firmly concluded that cryptography was

” a seed of intangible private property and of obvious identifiable value. ”

Thus, as an asset, a cryptographic asset “can be undoubtedly […] trusted.” If the liquidator succeeds in recovering the stolen property, the ruling therefore retains:

“They will be pro-rated within each particular trust of the digital assets involved, according to the recovered amount assessed against the stolen amount.”

Some Creditors to Get Less Than 50% of Claims

Exchange account holders will be refunded, but Judge Glendale has determined that the pool of liquidated assets available to creditors will be approximately NZ $ 5.4 million [approximately $ 3.22 million].

This is due to the fact that the sum of all creditors’ claims is NZ $ 12.7 million ($ 7.57 million), of which NZ $ 5 million ($ 2.9 million) is required by tax, resulting in a claim of 50%. authorities.

Digital Assets Identity Troubles

The judgment details show that the assigned liquidator, Grant Thornton, cannot verify the identity of the particular account holder. In such cases, the affected digital assets will be processed in accordance with New Zealand fiduciary law.

This is particularly relevant in light of the revelation from Grant Thornton in August 2019. The company explained that some Cryptopia customers did not have individual wallets and the funds were pooled.

As a result, the company stated that it was not possible to determine personal ownership based on wallet keys.

Current Status

At the time, Grant Thornton was working on “coordinating more than 900,000 customer accounts, many of which collated multiple crypto assets, millions of transactions, and over 400 different crypto assets one by one.” Guaranteed to the user. “

In December, Grant Thornton revealed that it had recovered approximately $ 11 million and paid $ 2.46 million to certain senior creditors. However, the company still states that “estimating the date of completion of liquidation is impractical”. Also, the “advanced reconciliation” process between the customer database and the crypto assets held in the wallet was “completed to date.