The defendant suffered a huge loss! The judge said that 3,000 bitcoins are not currency

Earlier this month, CoinDesk reported that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California was holding a hearing in a lawsuit against bitcoin mining company HashFast, which declared bankruptcy in 2014.

A trustee sued马克•洛维of HashFast, demanding that Mark Lowe return 3,000 bitcoins to the trustee, who, according to the trustee, was fraudulently transferred to Lowe before HashFast went bankrupt.

In recent weeks, the two sides have been at odds over whether Bitcoin should be considered a currency or a commodity in the case.

During the trial, the 3,000 bitcoins were worth about $1 million. If bitcoin is considered a currency, Lowe would only have to pay back the value of the 3,000 bitcoins at the time they were received, which is $360,000. If bitcoin is considered a commodity, he would have to pay back the current value of the 3,000 bitcoins, which is a huge sum.

At a hearing on Feb. 19, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge丹尼斯•蒙托利sided with the trustee, declaring Bitcoin to be “intangible personal property” rather than currency.

Brian布赖恩•克莱因, an attorney at Baker Marquar LLP and one of Lowe's defense attorneys, said the court should consider that Lowe used the 3,000 bitcoins to promote HashFast's products, so in this case, bitcoins should be treated the same as dollars.

However, Montoli dismissed Klein’s assertion, pointing out that Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar are not the same, saying:

“But that doesn’t make [Bitcoin] equivalent to the dollar, that’s my view. I understand the intent of the parties, but it doesn’t make Bitcoin equivalent to the dollar.”

The judge said he would later issue a final ruling on the case.

How big is the impact?

Industry experts believe that this case will be added to the civil legal cases related to Bitcoin as a reference case, although there will be some controversy.

However, different agencies in the United States have not reached a consensus on the definition of Bitcoin, and each defines Bitcoin according to its own needs. For example, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have ruled that Bitcoin is a commodity. Coin Center has been pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to consider Bitcoin as a security.

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/bankruptcy-judge-bitcoin-property-currency/
By Stan Higgins
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/bitcoin-property-currency)