Florian Martin-Bariteau (English and French)
Professeur agrégé, Faculte de droit – Section de common law et Chaire de recherche de l’Université en technologie et société.
[email protected]
"In theory, it’s very complex to seize funds detained in crypto-currency in a crypto-wallet. However, people rely on intermediaries and platforms to manage them, perform transactions and exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat currencies, and this is where the “point of failure” exist.
Canada has updated their anti money laundering framework to cover cryptocurrencies like other currency and platforms dealing in them must comply with those regulations and with court orders as banks do. Funds managed by those platforms can then be frozen by regulators or courts. With foreign platforms it could be more complicated.
However, protestors will need to convert the funds in CAD. As long as an element of the transaction or part of the fund is connected to a physical element in Canada, then it could be blocked.”