Withers KhattarWong has obtained a worldwide proprietary injunction on behalf of a Singaporean non-fungible token (NFT) investor to freeze the sale of a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT previously owned by him.
The Singapore High Court’s issuance of an injunction to protect an NFT is believed to be the first in Asia, as well as globally for a purely commercial dispute.
The injunction recognises an NFT as an asset, ruling that it shouldn’t be sold pending the resolution of an ownership dispute after it was foreclosed on as collateral for a loan. The case is also unique as it allowed for the service of court papers to be effected via social media such as Twitter.
The Straits Times identified the claimant as a certain Janesh Rajkumar, who is seeking to repossess the NFT known as BAYC No. 2162, which he had used as a collateral for a loan from an Internet users named "chefpierre.” Janesh alleges that "chefpierre" had taken it wrongfully from him.
The BAYC NFTs have become popular globally because of their celebrity owners, such as Madonna, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Jimmy Fallon, and Paris Hilton. On April 2022, the floor price for BAYC hit an all-time high of $434,000 on OpenSea, a major NFT marketplace.
The Withers team is led by international arbitration and litigation partner Shaun Leong,