The Singaporean court has intervened to stop the sale of a Bored Ape NFT, placing a hold on its ownership as well.

This week, Singapore's High Court made history by being the first to issue an injunction designed to protect a contested NFT. The specific NFT at the heart of the issue was a Bored Ape, utilized as collateral for a cryptocurrency loan but claimed by another party for sale. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of the original owner, putting a stop to any potential sales or ownership transfers of the NFT involved.

Janesh Rajkumar, a resident of Singapore, has been working to reclaim his Bored Ape #2162 from a lender known as 'chefpierre.' Rajkumar frequently leveraged this valuable NFT as collateral when borrowing cryptocurrencies via NFTfi, a marketplace that allows the use of NFTs for liquidity in exchange for loans.

According to  Straits Times In his loan agreement, Rajkumar made it clear that keeping ownership of his Bored Ape was essential. He planned to repay the loan and subsequently retrieve his NFT. However, if he failed to meet the repayment deadline, he was required to notify the lender and might have been granted an extension. The terms also explicitly stated that lenders could not invoke the 'foreclosure' clause, which permits them to assume ownership of the NFT if repayments were overdue.

The initial loan agreement between Rajkumar and chefpierre was established in January and completed without incident. By March, Rajkumar sought a second loan from the lender but requested a repayment extension afterward. They began discussing a potential third loan, which led to chefpierre restructuring the second loan that Rajkumar had trouble repaying on schedule. However, when chefpierre declined to provide the leftover amount, he insisted that Rajkumar pay back the loan by April 21 and threatened to utilize the foreclosure option.

This ultimatum left Rajkumar with less than 10 hours to settle the outstanding amount, an impossible task for him. Consequently, chefpierre took matters into his own hands and activated the 'foreclosure' option to take possession of the Bored Ape.

Rajkumar attempted to repay the loan later, but chefpierre rejected the payment and blocked him from further transactions. Subsequently, chefpierre listed the BAYC for sale on OpenSea, though this listing was later disabled due to suspicions of fraudulent activity.

Read related posts:

• MContent, a startup in the supercar industry, is gearing up to sell NFTs as part of its innovative offerings.
• The creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club successfully raised an impressive $450 million for a metaverse venture.
• Set to launch next week, the Bored Ape ‘Otherside’ Metaverse has driven ApeCoin to unprecedented highs.