As per a report by the consulting firm RTM Group, the number of legal cases associated with cryptocurrencies surged in Russia in 2022, reaching 1758, indicating an increase of almost 15%.
RTM Group analysts highlighted that in the previous year, there were 1531 court decisions linked to digital assets.
The report predicts that by the end of 2023, there will be a further rise in the number of court cases to 2000 due to the expanding interest in cryptocurrencies and the emergence of more complex fraudulent activities.
The report emphasizes that most of the court cases relate to violations in the circulation of crypto assets on Binance and Garantex crypto exchanges and the Coinomi wallet application.
A majority of the court decisions were about bankruptcies, with 141 judicial rulings in 2021 that increased six-fold to 897 rulings last year.
According to the report, cryptocurrencies are part of the debtor’s property during bankruptcy procedures, and ownership of mining equipment implies the existence of cryptocurrencies owned by the debtor.
The report states that the courts also considered cases relating to excessive electricity consumption when mining cryptocurrencies, resulting in hefty fines of millions of rubles imposed on the defendants.
Evgeny Tsarev, CEO of RTM Group, pointed out that cryptocurrencies in Russia are not sufficiently regulated, posing certain risks, and to execute transactions safely, it is crucial to validate counterparties and trading platforms, selecting only certified platforms and services.
Tsarev added that many crypto users who have been affected are unable to defend their rights in court since the court will not accept the case if the plaintiff does not inform the state authorities beforehand of owning crypto assets.
In recent news, the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation demanded Russians to report cryptocurrency transactions for 2021-2022.