In a legal dispute, a Singaporean court has recognized NFTs as securities for the first time in the country. Thus, according to the decision, NFT can be considered as a title deed. Therefore, a citizen who owns an NFT should have the same rights as he would have over an already regulated address.
Case includes BAYC 2162 from the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. A Singapore court has intervened in a dispute over NFT ownership between two people.
In this way, the digital asset acted as collateral for a loan. However, a dispute between the two parties led them to claim ownership of it.
The judge’s decision in this regard was to recognize ownership of the NFT to its “original” owner. So, to the person who applied for the loan and used it as collateral.
The other person (whose Opensea marketplace username is cheffpierre) cannot put the token up for sale. However, while he can’t sell, he can stay with the NFT until the case is resolved.
NFT
“Characterizing NFTs as mere information would ignore the unique relationship between data and the blockchain system. This allows this encrypted data to be transmitted from one user to another in a secure and verifiable manner,” the decision highlights.
Thus, the court’s decision still indicates that NFTs are not included in the traditional categories that define ownership. However, that cannot prevent it from being classified as other types of property to identify a person’s assets.
Therefore, according to the standards of the Singapore court, NFTs meet certain necessary conditions to be accepted as “title deeds.” For example, it can be isolated and identified from other similar assets, it is the sole property of the owner who has access to it. Moreover, they are likely to be desirable assets and have some degree of stability and survivability.
After a dispute with the creditor regarding the debt repayment extension, the creditor decided to exercise the retention clause of the NFT. So Rajkumar requests that this other person cannot use or sell this token until the dispute is resolved.