A suspect facing hacking allegations has been ordered by a US federal judge to pay a bail equivalent to $750,000 in cryptocurrencies. The suspect is facing charges for hacking Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), a leading video game company. He is said to have gotten away with in-game currency that was had been collected from buying and selling in-game items. Part of the coins also came from the sale of access to online games through black-market websites.
Cryptocurrency in the justice system
Aspects of blockchain technology can be traced in almost all industry. This is likely to be the first case in which cryopocurrencies are being used to pay bail in an American court. Martin Marsich, the suspect, is expected to confirm payment of bail today, August 20.
The choice of cryptocurrencies may have been the perfect one going by the circumstances at the time. The suspect, a resident of Italy, was arrested at the San Francisco International Airport. Marsich didn’t have enough money in fiat. Forcing him to pay for bail in cryptocurrencies will make him attend court sessions.
Will this be a benchmark for other such cases?
This case may be an isolated one and may not be carried forward in other court cases. One factor that makes Bitcoin (BTC-USD) and other crytpocurrencies hard to be used in paying bail is their volatile nature. Bail requirements are quite harsh. A bail may be set today and cryptocurrency prices crushed or vaulted higher the following day. In such cases, lawyers would request for a revision of the bail amount, something that rarely happens in conventional court cases.
However, Assistant District Attorney Abraham, said this may lead to other similar cases. According to him, cryptocurrencies will likely be used in other cases to pay bail because judges accept other assets like cars and real estate.
After his arrest, the accused first appeared before a San Francisco federal court on August 9. The accused was on his way to Serbia. In his ruling Magistrate Judge Corley said the accused could be released to a halfway house after paying $750,000 bail.
