Reports reveal that a court in the Shanghai region of China rules that Bitcoin is an asset protected by Chinese law. The ruling was made in a case involving the theft of cryptocurrencies.
The case has been in the works for several years. Chinese and Malaysian nationals broke into the home of a man and his wife on June 12, 2018. The couple were forced to transfer 18.88 bitcoins and 6,466 skycoins to the criminals.
The thieves were sentenced to prison for six and a half months to eight months. While they agreed to give the skycoins back, they refused to give the bitcoin back, stating that cryptocurrencies are not assets under Chinese law.
The chief judge in the case, Liu Jiang, explains that documents released by the central bank, the People’s Bank of China does not deny that bitcoin is an asset. The laws of China do not prohibit citizens from holding bitcoin.
Other judges in other courts in China have taken similar stances to bitcoin. The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration made a similar ruling to that of the court in the Shanghai region in a case involving 20 bitcoins, 50 bitcoin cash, and 13 bitcoin diamonds in 2018. A year later, the Hangzhou Internet Court recognized bitcoin
China has gained significant progress in the cryptocurrency sector, with its central bank making plans for a digital Yuan. It remains to be seen how much control it plans to enforce with respect to holders of Bitcoin.
Recently, one of China’s main bitcoin mining power sources called for more blockchain firms to use hydropower for their operations. Ya’an issued public guidance which shows that the government is looking to make the city a high-quality example for the consumption of excessive hydropower.
