The Singapore High Court has granted financial investigation firm Intelligent Sanctuary (iSanctuary) the authority to attach nonfungible tokens (NFTs) containing a court-issued worldwide freeze order to cold wallets linked to a cryptocurrency hack. These NFTs, referred to as soulbound, will not inhibit transactions with the wallets but will serve as a cautionary marker to counterparties and exchanges that these wallets were connected to a previous hack. Importantly, iSanctuary claims to have devised a mechanism that can monitor the movement of funds leaving these wallets, aided by the presence of the NFTs, which will be permanently affixed to the wallets.
According to iSanctuary, it was engaged by an individual who had suffered a loss of $3 million in cryptocurrency assets. The firm successfully tracked the stolen funds and presented both on-chain and off-chain evidence to the Singapore High Court. Consequently, the court issued a worldwide injunction, marking the first instance of such an order by the court. iSanctuary’s financial and crypto investigators were able to pinpoint a series of cold wallets holding the illicitly obtained funds. The court accepted the method of service via NFT, thereby allowing these NFTs to be linked to the wallets.
![Singapore Court Freezes Wallets with Soulbound NFT image 110](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image-110.png?resize=1024%2C543&ssl=1)
![Singapore Court Freezes Wallets with Soulbound NFT image 110](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image-110.png?resize=1024%2C543&ssl=1)
Mintology, an application created by Singaporean NFT studio Mintable, is named as the producer of these NFTs. This connection was indirectly verified by Mintable founder Zach Burks in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter).
According to The Straits Times, the case pertains to a stolen private key, with Singapore-based crypto exchanges allegedly participating in laundering the funds stolen by fraudsters masquerading as Singaporean entities. The case spans multiple countries, including Singapore, Spain, Ireland, Britain, and other European nations.
iSanctuary founder Jonathan Benton expressed the significance of this development, stating, “This is a game changer; it can happen in hours if needed. We can serve on wallets and start to police the blockchain, identify those holding illicit assets, serve civil or criminal orders, even red flags.”
NFTs have previously been utilized to deliver court summonses in Italy and the United States. This innovative use of blockchain and NFTs in the legal realm highlights their potential in enforcing legal actions and tracking illicit transactions in the cryptocurrency space.
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