The cryptocurrency accounts for more than half of the company\u2019s assets, according to documents lodged in the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Another director with access to a further holding of the company\u2019s bitcoin, Sam Lee, had not been responsive when contacted by email and the Chinese messaging service WeChat, the court was told.<\/p>\n Blockchain Global\u2019s former director, Allan Guo, and CEO Sam Lee at a 2014 product launch.<\/span>Credit:<\/span>Paul Jeffers<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cBlockchain\u2019s current directors currently reside overseas and are difficult to contact,\u201d Mr Yeo\u2019s affidavit said.<\/p>\n The administrators were granted more time from the Supreme Court to conduct their work because of the complexities in recovering cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cryptocurrency is designed to be difficult to trace, which has made it popular for those involved in criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.<\/p>\n Mr Yeo told The Sunday Age<\/em> that Australian insolvency laws applied to cryptocurrency as they would for any other asset.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt that the recovery of cryptocurrency requires a novel approach compared to most traditional assets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is certainly different to the recovery of funds from bank accounts. That is not to suggest that the recovery of such cryptocurrency is impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate court action, investors are pursuing Blockchain and ACX and its directors for more than $10 million after they were no longer able to access their accounts in February 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Loading<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Some investors say they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n One investor, Bruno Fabre, told The Sunday Age<\/em> that he had been a client of the exchange since 2017 and had no major issues until withdrawals were suddenly blocked with no explanation.<\/p>\n Mr Fabre asked that the full amount he had lost not be made public, however he described it as \u201csignificant\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no suspicion that it was a scam or anything like that. I was buying and selling, everything was functioning the way I thought it should function,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s become obvious since then that there\u2019s been some sort of wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Another investor, who asked not to be named, said that he was optimistic that some of his $40,000 investment would be returned.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it wasn\u2019t instant shock because it didn\u2019t just disappear,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst I lost access and didn\u2019t think too much of it. Then when their customer support ceased providing any support, I became pretty concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of the investors\u2019 case, a Supreme Court judge granted a freezing order over a further 117 bitcoin controlled by the company, currently worth $9.4 million, to prevent it from being sold or transferred.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/picture><\/div>