China Banned Bitcoin — Then One Of Its Highest Courts Just Ruled It’s Protected Property
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate published a landmark case on June 7 wherein prosecutors in Qingdao efficiently argued that Bitcoin qualifies as legally protected property below the nation’s prison legislation — sentencing a thief to almost 11 years in jail for stealing 107 Bitcoin — in a ruling that creates a placing authorized contradiction on the coronary heart of Beijing’s five-year-old blanket crypto ban.
The case, revealed on the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s official web site below the headline “107 Bitcoins Disappeared,” facilities on a defendant recognized solely by the surname Zhang. According to the court docket paperwork, Zhang obtained the sufferer’s cryptocurrency pockets restoration phrase and used it to switch and promote 107 Bitcoin belonging to the sufferer — an act the Qingdao prosecutors efficiently prosecuted as theft of property below Chinese prison legislation, per the SPP’s official account of the case.
Zhang was sentenced to 10 years and 9 months in jail and fined 100,000 yuan — roughly $13,800 — per the official ruling. The worth of the stolen property was calculated primarily based on the 660,000 yuan, or roughly $91,000, that Zhang acquired from liquidating the Bitcoin after the theft.
The prosecution’s core authorized argument was that Bitcoin satisfies the statutory definition of property below Chinese prison legislation as a result of it holds demonstrable financial worth and could be completely managed by its proprietor — two standards that outline protectable property pursuits below the Chinese authorized framework.
The Contradiction At The Center Of Chinese Crypto Law
The Qingdao ruling locations Beijing’s authorized system in an uncomfortable however more and more documented place. China’s September 2021 blanket ban — collectively issued by ten regulatory our bodies together with the People’s Bank of China — declared all cryptocurrency transactions unlawful, successfully prohibiting buying and selling, exchanges, and mining throughout the nation.
In May 2026, China expanded that crackdown to explicitly cowl stablecoins, RWA tokenization, and offshore yuan-pegged digital currencies, with a two-year rectification deadline for all unauthorized cross-border monetary channels.
Yet Chinese courts have concurrently and constantly affirmed Bitcoin’s standing as protected property in prison proceedings. A Shanghai court docket dominated in 2024 that crypto possession is authorized below Chinese legislation, per the South China Morning Post. The Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s Court beforehand described Bitcoin as a “distinctive and non-replicable” asset with clear monetary attributes.
And now the Supreme People’s Procuratorate — China’s highest prosecutorial authority — has revealed the Qingdao case as a mannequin ruling, signaling to prosecutors nationwide that that is the proper framework for dealing with Bitcoin theft circumstances.
Why The SPP Published This Case
Publication by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate shouldn’t be routine reporting. Cases featured on the SPP’s official platform are chosen as steering for lower-level prosecutors and courts dealing with comparable issues throughout China’s 34 provincial-level jurisdictions.
By highlighting the Qingdao case, Beijing’s highest prosecutorial physique is successfully issuing an instruction: when Bitcoin is stolen, prosecute it as property theft and worth it at market charges. That instruction operates no matter — and in direct rigidity with — the buying and selling and transaction ban that nominally makes Bitcoin unlawful to carry or switch in China.
The authorized structure this creates is genuinely novel. China concurrently tells its residents they can not purchase, promote, or commerce Bitcoin — and tells its courts that if somebody steals it, the total weight of prison legislation will defend the sufferer’s property rights. The nascent sector has by no means encountered a significant jurisdiction that bans its use and protects its possession concurrently on the highest authorized stage.
This growth marks a pivotal and legally complicated second for Bitcoin’s international standing. A ruling revealed by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate confirming Bitcoin as legally protected prison property — in a rustic that formally bans its use — shouldn’t be a minor jurisdictional footnote. It is a sign that even the world’s most restrictive crypto regime can’t absolutely escape the authorized actuality of what Bitcoin is.
Cover picture from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
