Singapore High Court Officially Rules NFTs as "Property"!

Estimated Read Time: 5 min

Hey friends,

Wonderful to have you back on this round-up of NFT news. We have a quick digest today from Singaporean court hearings to NFT banks and NFT ticketing, so let's jump into it!

Singapore High Court Rules NFTs As Property

Back in May we covered a Singaporean court case that resulted in OpenSea disabling trading for BAYC #2162. This seems like typical practice these days for suspicious NFTs, but this injunction led the Singaporean High Court to ruling NFTs as meeting the legal requirements to be considered property. The court case revolved around a BAYC NFT lost in collateral to a crypto loan, and after a disagreement took it to the highest court in Singapore, it was marked as “the first decision in a commercial dispute where NFTs are recognized as valuable property worth protecting”.

Earlier this week, Justice Lee Seiu Kin confirmed the status of NFTs to be considered as valuable property saying “to characterize NFTs as mere information would ignore the unique relationship between the encoded data and the blockchain system which enables the transfer of this encoded data from one user to another in a secure, and verifiable fashion”. Judge Lee also stated that NFTs have emerged as a highly sought-after collectors’ item and some NFTs are “the equivalent of a Rolex Daytona or an F.P. Journe to a horology enthusiast”, he said. This injunction marked the first commercial dispute over NFTs in Asia, and the ruling may have a significant impact on how NFTs are treated in the rest of the world. As we start to see the legal system catch up with this new technology and we see new regulations put in place, we can expect to see more Web3-related court cases pop up as NFTs become more entwined with our daily lives.

A Bank For Your Digital Assets?

A Bank at its roots could be seen as a place to safely hold your financial assets, so you don't have to. Safely holding your digital assets has been a common problem for Web3, where users holding their own assets when paired with a lack of protection have led to a slew of scams and fraud, so what if you want a bank for your digital assets? Switzerland bank Seba looks to answer this question by being the first regulated bank to offer a new custodial service that lets people store NFTs on their new regulated custody platform. Seba’s new NFT custody platform is designed to offer customers secure storage of their Ethereum-based NFTs without managing the private keys themselves, through a custom integration with the customer's existing bank account.

A representative at Seba Bank stated “We believe that in the coming years, digital assets, including NFTs, will gain adoption and will be increasingly accepted even by traditional finance operators… Seba Bank is addressing the need for a regulated custodian that can guarantee the security and integrity of NFTs for professional and institutional investors”. This may seem like a step backward for the blockchain which has an emphasis on removing assets from centralized institutions, but in fact, it exemplifies why we push towards Web3 because it puts the choice in your hands; if you want to protect your own digital assets then you can, if you want to interact with an external service then you can, it is the owner's flexibility that makes NFTs so powerful in every/any industry.

NFT Ticketing For Better Music Experiences

At its core, an event ticket is something digital that needs its ownership proven. Sounds simple enough but before NFTs, no system was properly doing this at a public scale. As a result, we have seen countless stories of ticket fraud like earlier this year when France claimed the Champions League final had up to 70% counterfeited tickets. Not only can NFTs replace tickets, but they open a new world through token-gated utility and unique interactions that we have seen form more intimate and closer communities in both real & digital domains. It is this combination of potential that has seen SeatlabNFT be created with the goal of helping artists build a closer connection with fans — all while eliminating fraud and reducing the impact of scalping.

In a recent announcement, the NFT ticketing and experience platform SeatlabNFT has partnered with Elrow Dubai to become their exclusive VIP ticketing provider. Elrow is mostly famous for carnival and circus-themed events where crowd interaction is a key pillar, but they also organize music festivals and concerts. With NFT ticketing, these fans can get even more immersive experiences through digital collectibles, airdropped rewards, and on-site interactive installations with exclusive rewards all linked back to your NFT ticket. SeatlabNFT’s CEO Ryan Kenny said, "This is a big moment for us to demonstrate our technology's capability to not only ticket large-scale events using NFTs but also reward fans with something of real value and improve their connection with the events they attend". The upside here is that NFT ticketing will be a huge catalyst for mainstream adoption where fans will not only be introduced to NFTs for the very first time, but be onboarded in a positive way where they can see and participate in the extra benefits that this new technology brings.

Hope you enjoyed today's round-up, have an awesome couple of days and we will be back at you with the latest NFTea, take care!☕

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.