After the relatively bleak years of 2022 and 2023, this year has
seen further rapid grown in the cryptocurrency market, driven in
large part by the admission of new exchange traded funds to the US
market.
Nevertheless, the nature of cryptocurrency as a matter of law
remains an area of some uncertainty.
In recent years, a number of courts have grappled with the
question of whether cryptocurrency is "property" or an
"asset" within the context of insolvency proceedings.
Such proceedings have typically arisen from the collapse of
cryptocurrency funds or virtual asset trading platforms.
In Smith v Torque Group Holdings Limited (in
liquidation) (Torque
Group),1 the Eastern Caribbean Supreme
Court answered the question in the affirmative; confirming that,
for the purposes of the BVI Insolvency Act, cryptocurrencies are to
be classified as property. Courts in the United
Kingdom,2 Singapore,3Canada,4and
New Zealand 5 have also recognised cryptocurrencies as
items of
