A London court has ruled that the UK government’s likelihood of retaining most of the seized bitcoins has increased. The related bitcoins are valued at approximately £3.8 billion ($5 billion), following a report by the Financial Times that the court determined thousands of Chinese fraud victims cannot claim these coins under UK law.
This case involves 61,000 bitcoins seized by the London Metropolitan Police during their investigation of Zhimin Qian, who has admitted to defrauding thousands of people in China.
Qian operated a large-scale Ponzi scheme through her company, Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, defrauding over 128,000 investors between 2014 and 2017. She then converted billions of dollars in stolen funds into Bitcoin and fled to the UK in 2017.
The victims had argued that British law should apply, as this might allow them to assert property rights over the billions of pounds in crypto assets. However, on Monday, Judge Mark Turner of the London High Court sided with UK authorities, ruling that Chinese law, not British law, should govern the victims’ property claims, since the underlying fraud occurred entirely in China.
The judge stated: "The relevant harm occurred in China. The applicants surrendered their funds in China. The alleged fraudulent representations were made in China. The contractual relationships induced thereby were established in China. The direct economic consequences of the misconduct were also borne in China."
However, this ruling does not ultimately determine who will own these bitcoins. But it narrows the path for victims to recover these bitcoins and increases the likelihood that the UK Treasury will ultimately retain the seized bitcoins.
According to the Financial Times, the victims' lawyers are appealing. The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated that upcoming hearings will determine whether any victims can prove ownership of these bitcoins.
Across the Atlantic, seized bitcoins have been institutionalized as part of the national balance sheet. In March 2025, the United States established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which includes BTC and other tokens seized during law enforcement operations. No single token was purchased with taxpayer funds. According to Arkham Intelligence, wallet addresses associated with the U.S. government hold cryptocurrency valued at $25.8 billion.