Landmark Legal Battle: The Russian Constitutional Court Will Rule on USDT Property Rights
The Russian Constitutional Court is about to issue a landmark ruling determining whether citizens have property rights over stablecoins, specifically USDT issued by Tether. This crucial decision stems from a civil dispute initiated by Moscow resident Dmitry Timchenko, who lent 1,000 USDT to a borrower, but the borrower subsequently refused to repay the amount.
Timchenko's case has undergone a challenging journey through the Russian judicial system. The Savelyevsky District Court and subsequent higher courts rejected his claims, stating that the current Russian law on digital financial assets (DFA) does not apply to foreign stablecoins. Timchenko's legal team escalated the matter to the Constitutional Court, arguing that this restriction is unconstitutional, especially since previous rulings have recognized intangible property rights for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The ruling expected to be made by the end of the year is significant as it will set a lasting legal precedent for future civil stablecoin ownership cases, providing much-needed clarity—or complexity—to Russia's digital asset landscape. Experts point out that regulators are struggling to define USDT, with the central bank referring to it as a “currency substitute,” highlighting the profound confusion this technology brings to the existing legal framework.
