Crypto ‘not protected by law,’ rules Chinese high court
As the Chinese government was already conducting massive crackdowns on the country’s crypto networks, yet another blow has come for the Chinese crypto community as a High Court in the Shandong province has ruled out cryptocurrencies as not formally a part of the country’s legal jurisdiction.
According to the news report by South China Morning Post (SCMP), the case in question had earlier appealed to an intermediate court in Jinan province. The plaintiff had invested a sum of 70,000 yuan (approximately $10,750) in an unnamed crypto token back in 2017. However, as People’s Bank of China started implementing its anti-crypto measures in 2018, all active accounts were closed, resulting in the loss of the investor’s tokens.
The plaintiff appealed to the Shandong High Court on allegations of fraud, but the court ruled out cryptocurrencies as being under legal authorities stating that “investing or trading cryptocurrency isn’t protected by law.”
Another case from Fujian province had also dismissed a Bitcoin-related case earlier in 2020, stating that digital assets “cannot be protected by the Chinese law.”
However, a court judgement at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court had implied in a case that the victimized couple should be compensated for their loss due to theft in Bitcoins. The same was echoed by a 2019 ruling in the Hangzhou Internet Court, becoming the second court in China to have deemed Bitcoins as ‘virtual property.’
SCMP has, however, claimed that the Shandong court’s ruling could serve as a “negative precedent” for China’s crypto traders.
