Education

The Law Commission's report and it's impacts on digital asset recovery

Author
Lo Furneaux
Marketing - Associate

Back in March 2020, the Ministry of Justice requested that the Law Commission of England and Wales review the current laws related to cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets to determine if they require any reform.

After two years of consultations with leading industry experts, the Law Commission has recently published its comprehensive report on digital assets.

After reading a summary of their findings, our Chief Strategy Officer Hugo Hoyland was keen to highlight the impact this report could have on efforts to improve global asset recovery:

“It’s quite clear that this long-awaited report was drafted by some of the sharpest legal minds in England and Wales.”
“It is reassuring to see that the Law Commission has recognised the ability of common law to deal with digital assets as a new type of property. This supports our belief that new legislation to manage digital assets is not always necessary, and instead, current laws should be adapted to handle this new asset class.”
“It is our hope that this approach will allow other areas to easily adopt comparable measures, which is vital in enhancing asset recovery procedures on a global scale.”

He went on to stress the significance of including the various use cases for digital assets in the full report:

“It's also encouraging to see that the Law Commission has provided a comprehensive definition of digital assets, going beyond just crypto tokens and tokenization and encompassing a wider range of what it means to have a digital asset.”
“This recognition is crucial because it acknowledges that the legal community must nurture strong partnerships with industry leaders in the private sector, such as ourselves, to contribute to our overall understanding of these new technologies.”‍

During the report’s creation, our co-founder & CEO Aidan Larkin was asked about proposed changes to the UK’s cryptocurrency regulations by Scott Chipolina, the digital assets correspondent for the Financial Times during a panel discussion on cryptocurrency risk, recovery and regulations hosted by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Oct 22.

Though he was pleased by the overall response from the UK, he was concerned that a lack of funding, resources and training being offered to enforcement agencies may cause further problems:‍

“It’s been brilliant to see the UK really addressing the specific crypto challenges. My worry is, are the resources there with the current government and the current funding? There are so many priorities and fraud doesn’t traditionally get much funding or much support.”
“This is no criticism…the response to fraud is a concern to me before crypto assets and the explosion of De-Fi and everything else.”
“I think the UK deserves credit for bringing out such a transparent set of clear guidelines as to what it’s going to do with crypto but money talks and I look forward to seeing what the statistics are in terms of seizures over the next 12-18 months.”‍

📖 Read the full report

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📄 Read a summary

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If you want to know more about our solution to streamline seized asset recovery & management, please contact press@assetreality.com or visit the Asset Reality website.

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