Fabrizio D’Aloiathe founder of the Italian online gambling business microgramhas received permission from the High Court of England and Wales to use an NFT drop to bring charges against defendants who prefer to remain anonymous, according to CoinDesk.

What happened: D’Aloia claimed to have been tricked into depositing more than 2.1 million by an online broker tether USDT/USD and 230,000 USD coin USDC/USD worth approximately $2.33 million in two different digital wallets that turned out to be fake.

The unprecedented action aims to combat cryptocurrency fraud and will allow D’Aloia to escalate the court case to individuals connected to two digital wallets, but remain anonymous.

Why it matters: A digital wallet address and the specifics of each cryptocurrency transaction are stored on the blockchain, with transactions remaining anonymous as long as there is no connection between a digital wallet address and an identity.

With permission granted by the court, D’Aloia can now deliver the court documents to the two digital wallets via an NFT airdrop and file a lawsuit against their owners.

“This is so important because it shows the courts’ willingness to adapt to new technologies and embrace blockchain and actually step in to help consumers where previous laws and regulators simply couldn’t,” Joanna Bailey, Attorney at Giambrone & Partners LLP said CoinDesk.

Crypto airdrops started in 2014 when Auroracoin EUR/USDthe proposed cryptocurrency for Iceland, was airdropped to any citizen who presented their ID card.

Since then, airdrops have become increasingly popular with the public Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection that drops 10,000 out of the air ApeCoin APE/USD for any Bored Ape owner in addition to other NFTs within the Bored Ape ecosystem.

Photo: Golden Sikorka via Shutterstock

First published July 13, 2022