In 2022, there were 1,758 court decisions related to cryptocurrencies in Russia, which is 14.83% more than a year earlier (1,531). According to RBC, this is stated in a study conducted by RTM Group, which provides legal services in the field of IT and information security and law.
Experts expect that by the end of 2023 the number of court cases will increase to 2 thousand.
In criminal cases, 463 acts were issued in 2022. The cases mainly concerned fraud, misappropriation and embezzlement, as well as various crimes in which the anonymity of transactions makes it possible to hide the identity of the offender (money laundering, drug trafficking).
The authors of the report believe that in 2023 the number of criminal cases will increase at least three times due to the rapidly growing interest in cryptocurrencies and the emergence of more and more new fraudulent schemes related to them.
The report states that in judicial practice, most often there are violations related to the circulation of cryptocurrencies on the Binance, Garantex platforms, as well as with Blockchain applications, Coinomi and Bitmain resources.
More than half of judicial acts were issued in bankruptcy cases. Their number for 2022 increased 6 times – from 141 acts in 2021 to 897 acts last year. According to experts, this is due to the general increase in the number of bankruptcy cases. According to the official bankruptcy resource of the Federal Resource, in 2022 the number of bankruptcies of citizens increased by 44.2%.
In bankruptcy cases, cryptocurrency is included in the bankruptcy estate of the debtor. The court is looking for property in the form of a cryptocurrency, and an indirect sign of its presence is the presence of mining equipment in the bankruptcy estate. Experts believe that by the end of this year the number of court cases in this category will increase by 4 times.
Cases of unmetered consumption of electricity for mining are also considered by the courts. This type of activity leads to the imposition of large (several tens of millions of rubles) fines.
Source: Rosbalt
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