A Russian arbitration court of appeals has recognized cryptocurrency as a property with value in its ruling on Monday. This overturned a previous ruling by another court even though Russia currently has no legal framework for cryptocurrencies.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that a bankrupt person’s cryptocurrency must be included in the debtor’s bankruptcy estate, local media reported.

The case involves Russian citizen Ilya Tsarkov who filed bankruptcy in October last year. The court has ordered his cryptocurrencies to be transferred to the trustee, Alexei Leonov, who is expected to be handed the private key to the crypto wallet belonging to Tsarkov soon. According to Vedomosti, Tsarkov owns almost 0.2 bitcoin which is worth approximately US$1,885 at current market rates.

“The cryptocurrency was first recognized as property in Russia,” Ris Novosti reported. Leonov commented that with this ruling:

Prior to Monday’s ruling, the case was heard in February by the Moscow Arbitration Court, which ordered Tsarkov to disclose his cryptocurrency holdings after he revealed to the bankruptcy trustee that he had a wallet at Blockchain.info.

Leonov requested the court to order the transfer of Tsarkov’s cryptocurrencies into the bankruptcy estate, but the court rejected his request at the time, stating that cryptocurrency cannot be used to pay creditors since “the laws of the Russian Federation do not recognize cryptocurrency as property.”

However, with Monday’s ruling, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeals overturned the judgment of the Moscow Arbitration Court after Leonov appealed. Russian Legal Information Agency Rapsi conveyed the court’s explanation:

Leonov cited “the position of the European Court of Human Rights on the issue of property and a bankruptcy case in Japan, where a court permitted to sell the debtor’s cryptocurrency,” the agency noted. “The lower court should have taken into account modern economic realities and new information technologies…bad-faith parties could exploit the fact that cryptocurrencies were excluded from bankruptcy estates by converting their assets and thus rendering them inaccessible,” he reportedly conveyed.

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This post was syndicated from Bitcoin News. Click here to read the full text on the original website. </s> News Russia: Court Rules Bitcoin Is Property In Landmark Bankruptcy Case

Russia classified cryptocurrency as property for the first time May 7 after a bankruptcy court forced a debtor to include his holdings in his personal wealth.

Moscow Court Demands Access To $1850 In BTC

As local news outlet RBC reports, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal in Moscow obliged bankruptcy victim Ilya Tsarkov to disclose the contents of his Blockchain.info wallet to bankruptcy lawyer Aleksey Leonov as part of the real estate estimation process.

The move represents a first for Russia, and comes at a time when hard-and-fast laws classifying cryptocurrency are still being created.

In February, a court ruled out classifying Bitcoin holdings as property, citing a lack of official regulation – a decision the latest ruling appears to ignore.

According to RBC, Leonov’s debts total around 18 million rubles ($285,000). His Blockchain.info wallet contains 0.2 BTC ($1850).

Lawyer To Contest Decision

Despite the relatively small sums of cryptocurrency involved, the lawyer representing Tsarkov said he was preparing to challenge the decision.

“The finance manager should be working out options for asset sales and presenting them in court, but given the absence of practice in selling cryptocurrencies, the process will likely drag on, and we’ll have time to contest the ruling,” RBC quotes Genadiy Uvarkin as saying.

What appears to be an unlikely anomaly is nonetheless representative of Russia’s approach to cryptocurrency in law in previous years.

In 2017, a court in St. Petersburg banned the dissemination of information related to Bitcoin in a sudden ruling it subsequently overturned nine months later.

The legal package meant to govern aspects of status and trading of crypto is due to become law in July, but its first reading generated a considerable number of amendments from government critics.

What do you think about the Russian court’s decision? Let us know in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock </s> Image copyright Reuters

Venezuela has launched a cryptocurrency in an attempt to bypass tough economic sanctions imposed by the US government.

The "Petro" is intended to bolster the country's crumbling economy, which has been suffering from hyperinflation and devaluation for years.

Venezuela claims it is the world's first sovereign cryptocurrency.

Critics say the move is a desperate attempt by Caracas to raise cash at a time when Venezuela lacks the ability to repay its $150bn of foreign debt.

Opposition leaders said the sale constitutes an illegal issuing of debt, while the US Treasury Department warned it may violate sanctions imposed last year.

The government says the currency aims to circumvent US sanctions on the economy.

President Nicolas Maduro has said each token will be backed by a barrel of Venezuelan crude. The Latin American country has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

A total of 100 million Petros will be sold, with an initial value set at $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuelan crude in mid-January.

The official website published a guide to setting up a virtual wallet in which to hold the cryptocurrency, but did not provide a link for actually doing so on Tuesday.

There was also no information on exchanges.

Venezuela's economic crisis has largely been triggered by a slide in oil prices and production, which accounts for 96% of exports. </s> Caracas, Venezuela: Crisis-ridden Venezuela is launching an oil-backed cryptocurrency on Tuesday that it hopes will help circumvent US financial sanctions and resurrect the country's moribund economy.

The pre-sale of the "petro," which will represent a barrel of crude from a specific division in the country's Orinoco oil belt, started on Tuesday morning. Investors were offered US$60 "tokens" at discounted rates that they can exchange for petros during what is being dubbed an "initial coin offering," or ICO, in March.

"The petro is born," President Nicolas Maduro said in a video he tweeted late Monday. "We're going with force, and we'll achieve total success for the benefit of Venezuela and the happiness of our people."

Sceptics have expressed doubts that the currency will thrive, mainly because of lack of trust in a government whose debt is being renegotiated and whose policies have brought skyrocketing inflation. In addition, the country's once-thriving oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), is producing at its lowest levels in decades.

Some critics also say the project does not make technical sense because the government will have too much space to manipulate the coin.

But proponents believe buyers may find the currency appealing since it is backed by a commodity and an administration with incentives to see it succeed.

Other cryptocurrencies have experienced considerable instability. The value of bitcoin, for instance, soared more than 300 per cent between August and December 2017, then plunged more than 50 per cent to its current level.

The first cryptocurrency officially launched by a government, the petro aims to offer a more stable option and may serve as an experiment for countries such as Russia. Moscow also faces US financial sanctions, and Russian officials have recently toyed with the idea of creating a "cryptoruble."

But many analysts are dubious that the experiment will succeed.

"It honestly sounds like they don't really understand how any of it works," Alex Van de Sande, a Brazil-based developer for the Ethereum Foundation, said in a phone interview.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it won't raise money. We've seen terrible ideas that don't make any sense raise a lot of it," he said. "If I wanted to avoid international sanctions and make money appear out of thin air in my country hiding the origin, I guess this petro would be a useful way."

Jean Paul Leidenz, an economist at Ecoanalitica, a Venezuelan financial consulting firm, said he sees no chance that the project will inspire enough trust to substitute petros for the crumbling national currency, the bolivar, or even pay impending sovereign and PDVSA debts.

In many ways, it is designed to give the government enough space to manoeuver, he said. For instance, it is not clear whether or how buyers will be able to claim rights over the barrels of oil that back the currency, or whether the coins will work as bonds for which holders will be paid once they want to cash their money out.

"The government may still get millions of fresh dollars from Russian and Arab investors," Leidenz said. "But from that to succeeding as a currency? I don't think so."

Indeed, many issues may erode the petro's credibility. Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly has called the project illegal, arguing that oil assets cannot, by law, be sold, and that the currency is a form of debt that has to be approved by the legislature. Maduro, however, has ignored the institution for years now.

The US Treasury Department also recently told Reuters that buying petros could be seen as "an extension of credit to the Venezuelan government," which could violate sanctions and expose US citizens to "legal risks."

But Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at social trading network eToro, said in a phone interview that he thinks the petro does have good prospects.

"It's a milestone - an extremely exciting project that has a great chance of working, and is definitely better than continuing with the status quo," he said.

With confidence in the national currency at rock-bottom, the government hopes that backing a currency with a commodity on an open-source platform will engender trust and transparency, Greenspan said. "If Venezuelans adopt it and see it as a force of good, then the crypto community will be there in a flash," he said.

During the initial coin offering in March, the government plans to sell 82.4 million petros to the public at a discount from the official $US60 value. People will then be able to buy petros from those who obtained them during the ICO.

Under the plan, Venezuelans would eventually be able to use the petro to make payments to public institutions, including tax payments, according to official documents explaining the initiative. No more than 100 million petros will be created unless the "Superintendency for Cryptocurrency" approves making more after counting holders' votes, the documents say. </s> Tennis ace Boris Becker has cited his role as sports attache to the Central African Republic to claim diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings.

The former world number one, who was a three-time Wimbledon champion, was appointed as attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs in April.

His position is covered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, meaning he cannot be subjected to any legal proceedings without the consent of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his counterpart in Bangui, his lawyers said.

Lawyers Sylvester Amiel Lewin and Horne lodged a claim asserting immunity in the High Court yesterday.

The 50-year-old German, who was once worth £27.5 million, shot to fame in 1985 when he became the youngest Wimbledon champion at 17.

But he was declared bankrupt in June 2017 by Registrar Christine Derrett.

The tennis champion is currently selling memorabilia of his career including Wimbledon trophies to help pay off his debts.

The bankruptcy application was made by private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co in connection with a judgement debt owed to them by Becker dating as far back as 2015.

Becker said: ‘The decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings against me was both unjustified and unjust.

‘A bunch of anonymous and unaccountable bankers and bureaucrats pushed me into a completely unnecessary declaration of bankruptcy, which has inflicted a whole heap of damage on me, both commercially and professionally, and on those close to me.

‘I have now asserted diplomatic immunity as I am in fact bound to do, in order to bring this farce to an end, so that I can start to rebuild my life.’

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MORE: Professor Stephen Hawking’s ashes to be buried next to Newton and Darwin </s> Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker is using his role as an ambassador for the Central African Republic to claim diplomatic immunity from ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in the UK.

Lawyers for the former tennis star lodged a claim in the high court in London on Thursday asserting immunity against attempts to enforce bankruptcy proceedings against Becker, which his creditors have applied to extend, citing his role as the Central African Republic’s attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs, which he started in April this year.

The position is covered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which means that Becker cannot be made subject to any legal process without the consent of the Central African Republic and the foreign secretary Boris Johnson, according to his lawyers.

Becker was declared bankrupt in June 2017 over an undisclosed amount of money owed to private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co, which a court ruled he was not able to pay.

After his lawyers submitted the application, Becker said: “The decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings against me was both unjustified and unjust. A bunch of anonymous and unaccountable bankers and bureaucrats pushed me into a completely unnecessary declaration of bankruptcy, which has inflicted a whole heap of damage on me, both commercially and professionally, and on those close to me.

“I have now asserted diplomatic immunity as I am in fact bound to do, in order to bring this farce to an end, so that I can start to rebuild my life. Once this gravy train for the suits has been stopped in its tracks, my lawyers will turn to the question of compensation. I will be coming after the people who forced this process through to hold them publicly accountable for their actions.”

Arbuthnot Latham & Co declined to immediately comment on Becker’s statement.

Becker will reportedly have his own office in the Brussels embassy of the Central African Republic as part of the role as sports attache.

He has employed Ben Emmerson QC, who has previously represented Julian Assange and Marina Litvinenko, to fight his bankruptcy case.

He continued: “I should add that I am immensely proud of my appointment as the sports and culture Attache for the Central African Republic. Sport is incredibly important in Africa and is fast becoming a universal language, a form of social diplomacy and a leveller between people from vastly different and unequal social backgrounds around the world.

“My diplomatic role in the Central African Republic allows me to give something meaningful back to sports supporters in one of the poorest parts of the world. There is no reason why a role of this kind should be treated any differently to an appointment as a military or a trade attache, which everyone recognises as attracting diplomatic immunity.” </s> Hackers stole several hundred million dollars' worth of a lesser-known cryptocurrency from a major Japanese exchange Friday.

Coincheck said that around 523 million of the exchange's NEM coins were sent to another account around 3 a.m. local time (1 p.m. ET Thursday), according to a Google translation of a Japanese transcript of the Friday press conference from Logmi. The exchange has about 6 percent of yen-bitcoin trading, ranking fourth by market share on CryptoCompare.

The stolen NEM coins were worth about 58 billion yen at the time of detection, or roughly $534.8 million, according to the exchange. Coincheck subsequently restricted withdrawals of all currencies, including yen, and trading of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin.

Bloomberg first reported the hack. A CNBC email sent to Coincheck's listed address bounced back.

Cryptocurrency NEM, which intends to help businesses handle data digitally, briefly fell more than 20 percent Friday before recovering to trade about 10 percent lower near 85 cents, according to CoinMarketCap. Most other major digital currencies, including bitcoin, traded little changed on the day.

Coincheck management said in the press conference that it held the NEM coins in a "hot" wallet, referring to a method of storage that is linked to the internet. In contrast, leading U.S. exchange Coinbase says on its website that 98 percent of its digital currency holdings are offline, or in "cold" storage.

The Japanese exchange said it did not appear that hackers had stolen other digital currencies.

The Coincheck hack follows news in December that a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange called Youbit lost 17 percent of its digital assets. Its parent Yapian filed for bankruptcy.

In another high-profile case, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and said it lost 750,000 of its users' bitcoins and 100,000 of the exchange's own. The company was the largest bitcoin exchange at the time.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimated in mid-December that more than $630 million in bitcoin has been lost to hackers. </s> WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is banning all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions.

In an executive order issued on Monday, President Donald Trump declared illegal all transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction this month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the "petro," for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.

In the executive order, Trump said it was an "attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions" imposed for democratic backsliding. The Treasury had said in January that the petro appeared to be an extension of credit to Venezuela and warned that transactions in it may violate U.S. sanctions. </s> Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker announced Friday he is claiming diplomatic immunity from bankruptcy proceedings in Britain as an ambassador for the Central African Republic.

Lawyers for the 50-year-old tennis player, a former world number one, lodged a claim Thursday in the High Court asserting immunity after he was appointed a sports attache for the Central African Republic in April.

Becker -- who won six Grand Slams in the 1980s and 90s -- was declared bankrupt by a London court in June 2017 for failing to pay a long-standing debt.

But his position as attache to the European Union on sporting, cultural and humanitarian affairs could be covered by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

This means the consent of Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his counterpart in Bangui would be needed before Becker is subjected to any legal proceedings, his lawyers said.

The bankruptcy application was made by private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co in relation to a debt owed to them by Becker dating to 2015.

Becker, however, said: "The decision to commence bankruptcy proceedings against me was both unjustified and unjust.

"A bunch of anonymous and unaccountable bankers and bureaucrats pushed me into a completely unnecessary declaration of bankruptcy, which has inflicted a whole heap of damage on me, both commercially and professionally, and on those close to me," he added, in a statement issued by his lawyers.

"I have now asserted diplomatic immunity as I am in fact bound to do, in order to bring this farce to an end, so that I can start to rebuild my life."

A spokesman for Arbuthnot, contacted by AFP in London, declined to comment.

When asked about Becker, European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told a daily news briefing in Brussels on Friday: "We have neither been involved in this appointment, nor been asked for EU accreditation.

"So as concerns the role he is playing, maybe best to ask your questions to the authorities of the Central African Republic."

Mark Stephens, a lawyer with London-based law firm Howard Kennedy and an expert in diplomatic immunity, said Becker "should not be allowed to avoid accountability just because he has a role with the Central African Republic".

Stephens told Britain's Press Association: "The Vienna Convention which established diplomatic immunity was intended to protect the highest members of state -- sovereigns, prime ministers, that sort of thing -- not advisers to fishing organisations, say.

The trustees handling the bankruptcy said they "do not accept these assertions" made by Becker.

"We welcome Mr Becker's appointment to promote sport in the Central African Republic. However, we believe that it has no material impact on Mr Becker's bankruptcy," trustee Mark Ford said in a statement.

Becker shook up the tennis world at Wimbledon in 1985 when, as an unseeded player, he became the then youngest-ever male Grand Slam champion at the age of 17, defending the trophy the following year.

The German went on to enjoy a glittering career and amassed more than $25 million in prize money.

Becker's tangled private life has also kept him in the news.

He has a daughter conceived in a brief but now famous encounter with a Russian model who claimed she met Becker at a London bar and had sex with him in a broom cupboard at a nearby Japanese restaurant.

In January, Becker appealed for help in tracking down five missing Grand Slam trophies which he said he needed to sell to help pay off his debts.
In a landmark bankruptcy case the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal in Moscow rules cryptocurrencies are property and demands access to a party's Bitcoin reserves.