Bloomberg Law
Feb. 3, 2023, 2:08 PM

Bitcoin Developers Must Face UK Trial Over Lost Cryptoassets

Upmanyu Trivedi
Upmanyu Trivedi
Bloomberg News

A group of Bitcoin developers must face a London trial that’ll decide whether they’re responsible for recovering lost or hacked cryptoassets, a judge ruled.

The Bitcoin developers, who act as gatekeepers to protect and tweak the software underlying the digital token, should face trial because there is an arguable case that they undertake a role of exercising power over property owned by other people, the judges said in the verdict.

The UK Court of Appeal overturned an earlier ruling that backed the developers’ rights.

Should they lose at trial it could expose developers to claims worth billions from anonymous ...

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