High Court in London: investors' claims to 61,000 seized bitcoins will be assessed under Chinese law

What the court decided

The ruling in Director of Public Prosecutions v Zhimin Qian & Anor was handed down on Monday, October 12, by Mr Justice Turner of the King's Bench Division of the High Court. There was a single question: which country's law should be used to test whether the defrauded investors hold property rights in bitcoins that sit in England.

The investors filed their claims under section 281 of the UK's Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. That section does not create a general compensation scheme: each claimant has to prove that a part of the seized property belongs to them specifically. The investors argued for English law, the prosecution for Chinese law.

The judge sided with the prosecution. His reasoning, as summarized by Decrypt and Crypto Times:

• the contracts, the investors' payments and the purchase of the bitcoins all took place in China, and the loss arose there too;
• the fact that the coins are now in England does not make English law applicable to earlier events;
• if under Chinese law the investors lost their rights to the money at the moment it was used to buy bitcoins, tracing the coins in England will not restore those rights;
• the judge reached the same conclusion on each of the legal routes he examined.

The parties did not dispute that bitcoin is property under English law: that was settled by the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, in force since December 2, 2025.

Why the choice of law matters so much

Under English law the investors had a chance to prove that the coins themselves belong to them, together with a decade of price growth. The Financial Times describes English law as considerably more favorable to the victims. Chinese law makes things harder: according to Caixin, which the reports cite, the roughly 16,000 claimants can expect little more than their principal back with interest. For now this is an estimate by observers: the court has not yet examined what Chinese law actually says.

The gap is enormous. The coins have sat untouched all this time while the price keeps moving: at the rate shown by any crypto exchange, 61,000 BTC are worth about $5 billion as of October 13, while a year ago, during the criminal proceedings, they were worth about $7 billion.

The table shows what the dispute is about. The gap between what was collected and what was returned is roughly RMB 6 billion, while the coins are worth several times more. If the investors receive only what they put in, most of the value stays with whoever holds the bitcoins, that is, with the British state.

What remains unresolved

The ruling answers only the question of applicable law. Next, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said, there will be a further hearing to establish how that law applies and whether any of the investors can prove a share in the bitcoins. The judge noted that the court has not yet heard evidence on the content of Chinese law. No date for the hearing has been given.

Three things remain open:

• The appeal. The claimants are represented by the law firm Fieldfisher, which, according to the Financial Times, will challenge the choice-of-law ruling.
• Compensation. Prosecutors have said the victims could be paid through a compensation scheme run from China. No details are available.
• The fate of the remainder. The Financial Times reported last year that UK Treasury officials had privately discussed whether the seized bitcoins could plug a hole in the budget. There is no official plan.

Governments increasingly end up as large bitcoin holders precisely through seizures. We have covered how US authorities moved seized bitcoins to Coinbase Prime and what has come to light about the $1 billion crypto seizure in the Iran case.

Where the 61,000 bitcoins came from

Zhimin Qian ran a company in China called Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology. From 2014 to 2017 it raised money through a Ponzi scheme, promising high returns. Qian converted the proceeds into bitcoin and left for the United Kingdom in 2017.

On October 31 and November 1, 2018, the Metropolitan Police carried out searches and seized the devices that gave access to the coins. It remains the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the country's history. In the British court Qian pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. On November 11, 2025, Southwark Crown Court sentenced her to 11 years and 8 months in prison.

For anyone who owns bitcoin, two simple things matter in this story. First, the bitcoin blockchain is public, and the path of the coins from the investors to Qian's wallets was reconstructed years later. Second, access to the coins comes from a device or a written record of the keys. Whoever ends up with that medium controls the coins, so it pays to think ahead about where and how to store your seed phrase.

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FAQ

What did the High Court in London decide on October 12, 2026?

That the investors' rights to the 61,000 seized bitcoins must be assessed under Chinese law. The court did not decide who owns the coins or how much each victim will receive.

Who will get the 61,000 bitcoins now?

That is not yet known. A hearing on the content of Chinese law and on each claimant's evidence lies ahead, and the investors' lawyers are preparing an appeal. Observers believe the British state's chances of keeping most of the coins have improved.

How much are the seized bitcoins worth?

About £3.8 billion, or $5 billion, at a price of roughly $83,000 per bitcoin on October 13, 2026. During the criminal proceedings a year ago the same coins were valued at about $7 billion.

Who is Zhimin Qian?

The organizer of a Ponzi scheme that ran in China from 2014 to 2017. She converted the money raised into bitcoin, left for the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty and in November 2025 was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months.

Will the investors be compensated?

Each claimant has to prove their share in the seized property. Prosecutors have mentioned a compensation scheme run from China, but its terms have not been disclosed.

Is bitcoin property under English law?

Yes. The parties to the case did not contest it: since December 2, 2025, the United Kingdom has had a statute that expressly treats digital assets as property.