⚖️ Who gets the 61,800 BTC? New developments in the “Qian Zhimin case” involving Bitcoin seized by the UK
A story has been all over X these past few days: China is seeking to recover around 61,800 bitcoins seized by British police, worth about $5 billion at current prices.
Here’s a quick recap:
🔹 From 2014 to 2017, Qian Zhimin ran a Ponzi-style fundraising scheme in Tianjin, raising about $5.7 billion from more than 100,000 investors
🔹 She later fled to the UK, where she was sentenced to 11 years in prison for money laundering. The coins also became one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures in history
🔹 A UK court recently ruled that the victims’ ownership claims should be determined under Chinese law
🔹 Authorities in Tianjin have opened a six-month claims window for victims to register their claims
🔹 The coins remain in UK custody, and related appeals are still ongoing
One detail many people have got wrong: the UK court did not “award” the bitcoins to China. It only decided which country’s laws should be used to determine who the rightful owners are. Who gets the coins and how they’ll be distributed have not yet been decided.
My take:
What the market cares about most is whether these 60,000-plus coins might one day be auctioned off or dumped onto the market. But procedurally, there’s a six-month claims period and appeals are still ongoing, so this is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Treating it as bearish news today is probably reading too much into it.
There’s another lesson worth remembering: coins can’t disappear on the blockchain. Money from more than 100,000 people was converted into Bitcoin, and ten years later, it can still be traced coin by coin. That’s a clear reminder that blockchain assets are not “beyond the reach of the law.”
How do you think these coins will ultimately be handled? A) Auctioned for cash to compensate the victims B) Returned directly in Bitcoin C) Dragged out for years with no resolution. Let’s discuss in the comments 👇
#比特币 #BTC #加密监管 #链上追踪
A story has been all over X these past few days: China is seeking to recover around 61,800 bitcoins seized by British police, worth about $5 billion at current prices.
Here’s a quick recap:
🔹 From 2014 to 2017, Qian Zhimin ran a Ponzi-style fundraising scheme in Tianjin, raising about $5.7 billion from more than 100,000 investors
🔹 She later fled to the UK, where she was sentenced to 11 years in prison for money laundering. The coins also became one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures in history
🔹 A UK court recently ruled that the victims’ ownership claims should be determined under Chinese law
🔹 Authorities in Tianjin have opened a six-month claims window for victims to register their claims
🔹 The coins remain in UK custody, and related appeals are still ongoing
One detail many people have got wrong: the UK court did not “award” the bitcoins to China. It only decided which country’s laws should be used to determine who the rightful owners are. Who gets the coins and how they’ll be distributed have not yet been decided.
My take:
What the market cares about most is whether these 60,000-plus coins might one day be auctioned off or dumped onto the market. But procedurally, there’s a six-month claims period and appeals are still ongoing, so this is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Treating it as bearish news today is probably reading too much into it.
There’s another lesson worth remembering: coins can’t disappear on the blockchain. Money from more than 100,000 people was converted into Bitcoin, and ten years later, it can still be traced coin by coin. That’s a clear reminder that blockchain assets are not “beyond the reach of the law.”
How do you think these coins will ultimately be handled? A) Auctioned for cash to compensate the victims B) Returned directly in Bitcoin C) Dragged out for years with no resolution. Let’s discuss in the comments 👇
#比特币 #BTC #加密监管 #链上追踪