DIGITAL ASSET CUSTODY AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW CONTROL PROPERTY A

When FTX filed for bankruptcy, creditors across multiple jurisdictions discovered that assets they believed they owned had been used for speculative trading without their consent. This book argues that such cases reveal fundamental problems of private law. It approaches digital asset custody as a private-law institution, places private international law at the centre of the analysis and identifies control rather than possession as the basis of entitlement in digital assets. Drawing on seven jurisdictions and the work of the Hague Conference, UNIDROIT and UNCITRAL, it examines property foundations, custodians duties and liability, insolvency, arrangements without a custodian and cross-border coordination.