China seeks to seize 61,800 BTC tied to $5.7 billion fraud scheme
Chinese prosecutors are seeking to confiscate more than 61,800 Bitcoin tied to a $5.7 billion fraud scheme, days after a U.K. court ruled Chinese law governs victims’ claims to the coins.
Chinese prosecutors have moved to seize more than 61,800 Bitcoin linked to a massive fraud case worth over 40 billion yuan, roughly $5.7 billion, according to reporting by Chinese outlet The Paper.
The case centers on Qian Zhimin, the alleged controller of Tianjin Lantian Gree Electronic Technology. Prosecutors say that from 2014 to 2017, the company sold unlicensed wealth-management products across China, promising guaranteed principal and high returns. The scheme raised more than 40.378 billion yuan from more than 102,000 investors, who lost nearly 20 billion yuan.
This money, however, was allegedly used to repay earlier investors, run fake investment projects, buy Bitcoin and acquire property, cars and jewelry, instead of funding real businesses.
Qian then fled China in 2017 and later settled in the UK. British authorities eventually seized his assets, including more than 61,800 bitcoin, plus bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, bitcoin SV, ripple, dogecoin, cash, jewelry and investment holdings.
On Oct. 13, Tianjin’s Second Intermediate People’s Court said it had accepted prosecutors’ request to confiscate the assets as illegal gains. The court has opened a six-month period for victims and other interested parties to join the case. Victims who do not participate can still seek refunds from recovered assets.
The development comes days after a U.K. High Court ruled that Chinese law, rather than English law, should govern alleged victims’ claims to the more than 61,000 BTC seized in Britain.
The ruling doesn’t mean that victims can never recover their coins. Instead, it calls for assessing whether the victims have a property claim under Chinese law, with further hearings expected. Lawyers for some victims are seeking to appeal.
The case is one of China’s largest alleged crypto-linked frauds—and the Bitcoin stash could be worth far more today than when it was seized.
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Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
China's seizure attempt of 61,800 BTC (~$5.7B) signals an escalation in cross-border crypto asset recovery, particularly as jurisdictional clarity improves. The U.K. court's prior ruling that Chinese law governs victim claims creates a rare enforcement tailwind for Beijing—normally, Bitcoin's borderless nature and self-custody defaults make confiscation extremely difficult without exchange cooperation or on-chain control. This case demonstrates how fraud-related holdings may face different legal treatment than legitimately held assets.
The precedent matters beyond this single fraud. As regulatory frameworks mature globally, governments are establishing that crypto holdings connected to crime can be subject to traditional asset seizure laws, even at scale. However, practical execution remains the bottleneck: unless the Bitcoin is held in a regulated custodian or exchange account within Chinese jurisdiction, or the defendant voluntarily complies, the confiscation order is largely symbolic. This highlights why major crypto platforms' KYC and compliance layers have become de facto tools for state asset control.
For the sector, this normalizes crypto as a subject of conventional law enforcement rather than a regulatory exception. It also underscores custody and self-sovereignty trade-offs: assets in cold storage or decentralized protocols remain effectively beyond state seizure, while exchange-held coins face increasing compliance pressure.