Court Orders Tracing Remedy For Cryptocurrency - Copytrack Pte Ltd v. Wall

The decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court on September 12, 2018 in Copytrack Pte Ltd v. Wall¹ is one of the first cases in Canada where a court-ordered remedy has been applied to digital currency, and it may have major implications for parties seeking relief in respect of digital currency in the future. This case demonstrates that courts will craft laws to meet the realities of the digital world economy.

The Plaintiff Copytrack was a Singapore company engaged in the business of digital content management. As part of its business it had created a cryptocurrency called "CPY Tokens" and offered investors an initial coin offering ("ICO"). The Defendant Brian Wall participated in the ICO and subscribed for 530 CPY tokens. Instead of transferring to Wall his 530 CPY tokens, Copytrack mistakenly transferred 530 tokens of the well-known and much more valuable Ether cryptocurrency. The 530 CPY tokens had a value of $780 CDN, while the 530 Ether tokens had a value