The Singapore International Commercial Court has ordered a freeze on approximately S$75m worth of Bitcoin and USD Coin following a dispute involving a major cryptocurrency trading platform and a longstanding customer. The court’s decision, issued by Justice Aidan Xu and SICC International Judges Anthony Meagher and David Goddard, grants an interim injunction preventing the defendant from dealing with 816,773 USD Coin and 780 Bitcoin that were transferred from two specialised wallets.
The claimants, operators of the trading platform, allege that due to a technical oversight, their internal ledger failed to record transfers from the defendant’s wallets in March 2020, despite support for these wallets ceasing in 2018. Acting on this mistaken belief, the claimants transferred 2,500 Bitcoin and 2,500 Bitcoin Cash into the defendant’s other wallets in July 2024. The defendant subsequently converted 20 Bitcoin into approximately 816,773 USD Coin and moved these, along with 780 Bitcoin, into other wallets between July and November 2024.
In January 2025, the claimants discovered the ledger discrepancies and froze the defendant’s wallets, recovering 1,700 Bitcoin and 2,500 Bitcoin Cash. The court found sufficient evidence to suggest the defendant’s wallets were effectively empty and that the claimants had mistakenly credited the assets. It was also arguable that the defendant was aware of the mistake when contacted by the claimants in July 2024. The full judgement is available at 2026 SGHCI 4.
