BlockBeats news, on October 13, according to Caixin, the UK court issued a significant ruling regarding the cross-border asset recovery dispute involving over 61,000 bitcoins linked to the illegal fundraising case of Tianjin Lan Tian Ge Rui in China. On October 12 local time, the judgment document obtained by Caixin from the UK High Court showed that the UK High Court determined that Chinese investors' property rights claims regarding the involved bitcoins should be assessed under Chinese law, not UK law.
This means that approximately 16,000 Chinese victims who participated in the UK claims process may not be able to share in the substantial gains from Bitcoin’s price surge under UK law, and can recover at most only their principal and interest.
Qian Zhimin purchased Bitcoin on Huobi in 2014 at an average price of approximately RMB 2,815. Since then, the price of Bitcoin has risen significantly. Despite multiple rounds of sharp fluctuations, as of October 12, 2026, the price of Bitcoin was around RMB 560,000—roughly 200 times the average price he paid back then.
During the hearings held from July 7 to 9 this year, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the United Kingdom argued for the application of Chinese law; the receiver for Tianjin Blue Sky Ge Rui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. supported this position, while the lawyers representing Chinese individual investors advocated for the application of British law, or alternatively, both Chinese and British laws. The court ultimately sided with the position of the UK prosecution.