{"id":99430,"date":"2026-06-08T12:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=99430"},"modified":"2026-06-08T12:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:33:01","slug":"china-banned-bitcoin-then-one-of-its-highest-courts-just-ruled-its-protected-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=99430","title":{"rendered":"China Banned Bitcoin \u2014 Then One Of Its Highest Courts Just Ruled It\u2019s Protected Property"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

China\u2019s Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate published<\/a> a landmark case on June 7 in which prosecutors in Qingdao successfully argued that Bitcoin qualifies as legally protected property under the country\u2019s criminal law \u2014 sentencing a thief to nearly 11 years in prison for stealing 107 Bitcoin \u2014 in a ruling that creates a striking legal contradiction at the heart of Beijing\u2019s five-year-old blanket crypto ban.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The case, published on the Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate\u2019s official website under the headline \u201c107 Bitcoins Disappeared,\u201d centers on a defendant identified only by the surname Zhang. According to the court documents, Zhang obtained the victim\u2019s cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrase and used it to transfer and sell 107 Bitcoin belonging to the victim \u2014 an act the Qingdao prosecutors successfully prosecuted as theft of property under Chinese criminal law, per the SPP\u2019s official account of the case.<\/p>\n

Zhang was sentenced to ten years and nine months in prison and fined 100,000 yuan \u2014 approximately $13,800 \u2014 per the official ruling. The value of the stolen property was calculated based on the 660,000 yuan, or roughly $91,000, that Zhang received from liquidating the Bitcoin after the theft.<\/p>\n

The prosecution\u2019s core legal argument was that Bitcoin satisfies the statutory definition of property under Chinese criminal law because it holds demonstrable economic value and can be exclusively controlled by its owner \u2014 two criteria that define protectable property interests under the Chinese legal framework.<\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin<\/p>\n

The Contradiction At The Center Of Chinese Crypto Law<\/h2>\n

The Qingdao ruling places Beijing\u2019s legal system in an uncomfortable but increasingly documented position. China\u2019s September 2021 blanket ban \u2014 jointly issued by ten regulatory bodies including the People\u2019s Bank of China \u2014 declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, effectively prohibiting trading, exchanges, and mining across the country.<\/p>\n

In May 2026, China expanded that crackdown to explicitly cover stablecoins, RWA tokenization, and offshore yuan-pegged digital currencies, with a two-year rectification deadline for all unauthorized cross-border financial channels.<\/p>\n

Yet Chinese courts have simultaneously and consistently affirmed Bitcoin\u2019s status as protected property in criminal proceedings. A Shanghai court ruled in 2024 that crypto ownership is legal under Chinese law, per the South China Morning Post. The Shanghai Second Intermediate People\u2019s Court previously described Bitcoin as a \u201cunique and non-replicable\u201d asset with clear financial attributes.<\/p>\n

And now the Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate \u2014 China\u2019s highest prosecutorial authority \u2014 has published the Qingdao case as a model ruling, signaling to prosecutors nationwide that this is the correct framework for handling Bitcoin theft cases.<\/p>\n

Why The SPP Published This Case<\/h2>\n

Publication by the Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate is not routine reporting. Cases featured on the SPP\u2019s official platform are selected as guidance for lower-level prosecutors and courts handling similar matters across China\u2019s 34 provincial-level jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

By highlighting the Qingdao case, Beijing\u2019s highest prosecutorial body is effectively issuing an instruction: when Bitcoin is stolen, prosecute it as property theft and value it at market rates. That instruction operates regardless of \u2014 and in direct tension with \u2014 the trading and transaction ban that nominally makes Bitcoin illegal to hold or transfer in China.<\/p>\n

The legal architecture this creates is genuinely novel. China simultaneously tells its citizens they cannot buy, sell, or trade Bitcoin \u2014 and tells its courts that if someone steals it, the full weight of criminal law will protect the victim\u2019s property rights. The nascent sector has never encountered a major jurisdiction that bans its use and protects its ownership simultaneously at the highest legal level.<\/p>\n

This development marks a pivotal and legally complex moment for Bitcoin\u2019s global status. A ruling published by China\u2019s Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate confirming Bitcoin as legally protected criminal property \u2014 in a country that officially bans its use \u2014 is not a minor jurisdictional footnote. It is a signal that even the world\u2019s most restrictive crypto regime cannot fully escape the legal reality of what Bitcoin is.<\/p>\n

Cover image from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate published a landmark case on June 7 in which prosecutors in Qingdao successfully argued that Bitcoin qualifies as legally protected property under the country\u2019s criminal law \u2014 sentencing a thief to nearly 11 years in prison for stealing 107 Bitcoin \u2014 in a ruling that creates a striking legal contradiction at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-99430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}