{"id":711337,"date":"2026-01-21T18:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711337\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:22:23","slug":"russias-top-court-just-handed-crypto-holders-a-big-win-dl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711337\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s top court just handed crypto holders a big win \u2013 DL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"list-outside pl-8\">\n<li>Court delivers verdict on USDT 1,000 loan from 2023.<\/li>\n<li>No grounds for denying crypto owners\u2019 property rights, says court.<\/li>\n<li>Judges tell lawmakers to create new legislation to clarify crypto\u2019s property status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">A Russian court has delivered a massive win for crypto holders. <\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">The Constitutional Court ruled that crypto is subject to property laws, which will have far-reaching consequences for crypto owners and courts, according to a legal expert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">Ignat Likhunov, a lawyer and the head of the law firm Cartesius, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.ru\/crypto\/news\/696f62df9a79477193ef4aad\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> Russian media outlet RBC that the decision will echo through future civil disputes and criminal cases involving stolen digital assets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">\u201cIt sets a precedent for future [police and court] investigations,\u201d Likhunov said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">The ruling not only clarifies rules about ownership of digital assets, it also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/markets\/russian-boomers-want-their-pensions-paid-in-crypto-government-body-reveals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">highlights<\/a> the growing popularity of cryptocurrency in Russia, as Moscow prepares to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/markets\/russian-central-bank-makes-retail-investor-turnaround\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">make sweeping changes<\/a> to crypto regulation later this year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">While federal lawmakers are still working on the new rules, courts must provide protection for crypto holders, provided that they have obtained the assets legally, Likhunov said. <\/p>\n<p id=\"civil-lawsuit\">Civil lawsuit<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">The high-profile case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/regulation\/russian-constitutional-court-set-to-rule-in-usdt-case\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">revolves<\/a> around a civil lawsuit filed by Moscow resident Dmitry Timchenko. In 2023, Timchenko provided a loan of 1,000 USDT, the dollar-pegged stablecoin developed by Tether, to an unidentified borrower under pre-arranged terms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">However, the borrower allegedly failed to return the funds. Timchenko responded by filing a civil claim with the Savelovsky District Court. The court dismissed the case, ruling that Russia\u2019s legislation on digital financial assets, Moscow\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/markets\/russias-little-known-13bn-crypto-secret\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">take<\/a> on tokenised assets, does not cover stablecoins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">Timchenko challenged this decision at both a regional appellate court and the Supreme Court, but both upheld the original ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">Undeterred, Timchenko\u2019s legal team brought the matter before the Constitutional Court, asserting that the prior judgments violated his property rights as enshrined in the constitution. His lawyers argued that \u201cno other form of property in Russia is subject to such limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Legislation incoming<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">In earlier criminal proceedings, Russian courts have recognised that laws on intangible property rights can be extended to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">\u201cThe [lower] courts rejected Timchenko\u2019s claim because he failed to inform the tax authorities that he owned USDT tokens. [&#8230;] This entails a denial of judicial protection,\u201d the Constitutional Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksrf.ru\/news\/37586\/\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">The court noted that the obligation to report crypto holdings to tax bodies only applies to miners. <\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">The ruling shows that failure to report coins does not negate a crypto owner\u2019s property rights, said Likhunov \u2014 provided these tokens were not obtained through illegal means.<\/p>\n<p class=\"puppeteer-article-text-type-element\">Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/regulation\/russian-top-court-hands-crypto-holders-major-win\/mailto:tdalper@dlnews.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.dlnews.com\/articles\/regulation\/russian-top-court-hands-crypto-holders-major-win\/mailto:tdalper@dlnews.com\">tdalper@dlnews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Court delivers verdict on USDT 1,000 loan from 2023. No grounds for denying crypto owners\u2019 property rights, says&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332,16137,59738],"class_list":["post-711337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-russia","tag-stablecoin","tag-usdt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115934486826078586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}