The Madras Excessive Court docket has declared that cryptocurrency qualifies as property, a digital asset able to being “loved and possessed in a useful type” and even “held in trust,” Bar and Bench reported.
The statement got here from Justice N Anand Venkatesh whereas listening to a case between Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd (the Indian arm of WazirX) and a crypto investor whose 3,532.30 XRP tokens have been frozen following a cyberattack in July 2024.
Rejecting the notion that digital tokens lack materials existence, the courtroom held that cryptocurrencies, regardless of being intangible and never recognised as authorized tender, possess the important options of property**.
“There isn’t a doubt that cryptocurrency is a property. It isn’t tangible, neither is it a foreign money. Nevertheless, it is a property that can be loved and possessed in a useful type and is able to being held in trust,” the courtroom stated.
Justice Venkatesh elaborated that cryptocurrencies have an outlined, identifiable, and transferable nature, with possession secured by personal keys, granting them exclusivity just like different types of property.
To substantiate the reasoning, the courtroom cited **Supreme Court docket precedents**, together with *Ahmed GH Ariff vs CWT* and *Jilubhai Nanbhai Khachar vs State of Gujarat*, increasing the interpretation of “property” past bodily or conventional property.
Crucially, the courtroom additionally clarified that cryptocurrency transactions shouldn’t be handled as speculative, as they fall beneath the class of “digital digital property” (VDAs) as outlined by Part 2(47A) of the Revenue Tax Act, 1961.
“Below Indian regulation, crypto is a digital digital asset and never a speculative transaction. It can be traded, saved, and offered — options that give it authorized and financial worth,” Justice Venkatesh noticed.
hile the Reserve Financial institution of India continues to keep up a cautious stance on crypto, the courtroom’s recognition alerts a rising judicial effort to create authorized readability in the gray zones of digital finance.
