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ARTICLE · 13 JUNE 2022

When Airdrop? New Approach For Service Of Anonymous Crypto Defendants

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Jurisdictions the world over are seeing a marked increase in civil cases relating to crypto theft, fraud and misrepresentation.

United StatesTechnology
Graham Lovett
Graham Lovett
Wael Jabsheh
Wael Jabsheh
Michael Stewart
Michael Stewart
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Blockchain – Crypto theft – Alternative Service on anonymous defendants

Jurisdictions the world over are seeing a marked increase in civil cases relating to crypto theft, fraud and misrepresentation. However, a major stumbling block for claimants is how to serve anonymous defendants of unknown citizenship with court papers. A recent case in the United States has set an interesting precedent in dealing with this issue that is likely to be mirrored in other jurisdictions. The New York State Supreme Court ordered that documents be served on the anonymous person(s) controlling an Ethereum address by way of a ‘service token' being airdropped into the address (the “Service Token”). The Service Token contained a hyperlink to a website on which the court papers were published.

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