Chinese court recognized bitcoin as a valuable asset

The first cryptocurrency is now protected by PRC law and has a proven economic value

15.05.2022 - 07:30

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2 min

What’s new? The Shanghai High People’s Court has recognized bitcoin as a valuable asset. During the consideration of one of the cases, the court said that the first cryptocurrency has an economic value and is protected by the country’s laws, Bitcoin.com reports.

Material by Bitcoin.com

More details about the court case. In 2020, Chinese citizen Cheng Mou sued Shi Moumou, demanding to return 1 BTC to him. The court ordered the accused to reimburse the plaintiff, but Moumou refused to make the payment and the case went to the Shanghai High People’s Court.

“In the actual trial practice, the People’s Court has formed a unified opinion on the legal position of bitcoin, and identified it as a virtual property,” the ruling says.

The court went on to explain that bitcoin“has a certain economic value and conforms to the property’s attributes, the legal rules of property rights are applied for protection.” Liu Yang, a lawyer from Beijing’s Deheng Law Firm, said that this ruling will be of great importance for further cases on cryptocurrencies in China.

What happened before? At the end of September 2021, China imposed a total ban on cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to the digital assets themselves, exchanges, as well as any services related to cryptocurrencies, became illegal.

In April, the district court in St. Petersburg arrested the stolen cryptocurrency for the first time. The Investigative Committee blocked 24 addresses with 4 000 ETH, which an attacker stole from an investor. Since the concept of cryptocurrencies is not enshrined in the law, it is marked as “other property” in the case. Despite this, a request to seize such assets is permissible, the lawyer explained.

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