Defendants in US federal court cases now have another
option for staying out on bail: emptying their virtual wallets. A district
court in San Francisco has ordered alleged
hacker Martin Marsich to pay the equivalent of $750,000 in cryptocurrency if he
wants to live in a halfway house while facing trial. It's not clear if this is
the first instance of an American court accepting digital currency for bail
(Assistant District Attorney Abraham Simmons expressed doubt about it to
the Daily Post). However, it's likely a novelty at the federal
level.
Marsich is expected to confirm the bail payment on August
20th.
To some extent, the cryptocurrency option might have been
necessary. Police arrested Marsich, a resident of Italy accused of hacking game
giant EA to access accounts, while he was at San Francisco International
Airport. Marsich wasn't swimming in US funds, in other words -- this gave him
an incentive to show up in court.
This probably won't be the norm for a long time, if ever.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency formats are still
quite volatile. A bail requirement that seems harsh one day could be
trivial the next if the money's value crashes. While lawyers could likely ask
for a change in the bail amount in one of those scenarios, that's something
that rarely if ever creeps up when conventional cash is involved.
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