Một người đàn ông Trung Quốc ăn cắp 107 BTC từ người quen trong lúc giúp đăng ký ví, bị kết án 10 năm 9 tháng

The Huoxing Finance report states that the People's Procuratorate of Licang District, Qingdao, Shandong Province, recently handled a Bitcoin theft case. The defendant, Zhang XX, obtained the mnemonic phrase while assisting an acquaintance in registering a cryptocurrency wallet, and subsequently transferred 107 BTC in multiple transactions, equivalent to over RMB 50 million at current market prices. Zhang claimed his actions constituted a "protective takeover," but prosecutors found that he transferred the stolen BTC through multiple exchanges and converted them into RMB 660,000. The Licang District Court sentenced Zhang to 10 years and 9 months in prison and imposed a fine of RMB 100,000 in the first-instance trial; the appellate court upheld the original judgment. According to the report, the prosecuting prosecutor, strictly adhering to the law and judicial policies, concluded that although China’s regulatory policy denies virtual currencies legal tender status, it does not deny their property attributes or prohibit citizens from legally holding and transferring them. Bitcoin requires investment in computational power, funds, and other costs to acquire, thus possessing economic value; rights holders can exercise exclusive control and management through private keys and mnemonic phrases, meeting the core characteristics of "property" under criminal law and qualifying as an object of theft. Regarding the valuation of the amount involved, since virtual currencies lack official pricing, the Licang District Procuratorate rejected market price estimation and instead used the actual proceeds from the sale—RMB 660,000—as the theft amount, ensuring accurate conviction, appropriate sentencing, and consistency between crime, responsibility, and punishment.