Economou & Co LLC, together with leading counsel Marcos Dracos KC, successfully represented eight defendants in the first major case before the Cypriot Courts involving crypto tokenization in commodity trading.

The claimants had obtained an ex-parte freezing order against several defendants. Following full adjudication, the District Court of Limassol dismissed the application and discharged the freezing order, concluding that no prima facie cause of action had been established. In its judgment, the Court accepted the defendants’ submissions in that the claimants’ allegations were mostly unsubstantiated and, among others, based on multiple layers of hearsay.

The judgment stands out for several reasons:

• It arose from a pioneering dispute concerning the tokenization of commodities in a multi-million-dollar crypto-finance context.
• It addressed the complex interaction between commercial arrangements and the UK Sanctions regime.
• It offered valuable insight into how force majeure clauses operate in the face of geopolitical and regulatory disruption.

Ultimately, the Court concluded that no cause of action was presented which was neither frivolous nor vexatious.

The judgment constitutes a noteworthy development in the Cypriot courts’ treatment of emerging financial technologies, while it highlights the necessity of adequate evidential substance in Mareva applications. The Court’s detailed analysis of both factual and legal issues offers valuable guidance for future disputes involving crypto-finance structures.

Economou & Co LLC is recognised for the strength of its corporate litigation practice, having obtained a broad range of relief in several high-value disputes, with aggregate claims reaching into the billions.

For further insights, we invite our readers to explore our dedicated resources available on our website:

• Interim Injunctions and the Digitized World: Freezing Orders, NFTs, and Cybercrime
• Preserving Assets and Justice: Interim Orders in Cyprus Explained
• Interim Orders in Citizenship Revocation Proceedings: Focused Guide and Recent Legal Developments
• Prohibitory Orders
• Disclosure Orders
• Receivership Orders
• Chabra Orders
• Anton Piller (search) Orders