LEGAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISMS IN DECENTRALIZED FINANCE

Abstrak

The rapid growth of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, NFTs, DeFi, smart contracts and blockchain-based finance has created new disputes involving ownership, contractual performance, exchange liability, theft, insolvency, jurisdiction and enforcement. Their resolution is complicated by decentralization, cross-border transactions, pseudonymous participants and automated systems. This article comparatively examines litigation, arbitration, mediation and emerging on-chain dispute resolution, drawing on leading cases from England and Wales, Singapore and New Zealand, including *Ruscoe v Cryptopia Ltd*, *Quoine Pte Ltd v B2C2 Ltd* and *Tulip Trading Ltd v Van der Laan*. It also considers digital-asset property law, the UNCITRAL and New York Convention arbitration framework, stablecoin regulation in the United States, and issues of jurisdiction, proprietary remedies, blockchain evidence, interim measures and enforcement. The article argues that decentralization requires adaptation rather than replacement of traditional dispute-resolution mechanisms and proposes an integrated framework for Uzbekistan combining courts, arbitration, mediation and regulated technology-assisted dispute resolution.