London Court Rules Chinese Law Governs Claims to 61,000 BTC

London's High Court has ruled that Chinese victims' claims to 61,000 Bitcoin will be decided under Chinese law, not English law. Justice Mark Turner issued the decision on Monday, October 12. It improves the odds that the British government keeps most of the coins, worth about $5 billion.

What the court decided

Turner rejected every option the claimants put forward: English law and a mixed approach drawing on both systems. Chinese law will determine whether they hold property rights in the bitcoin. The judge reached the same answer under each legal route he considered. He left the content and proof of Chinese law for a later stage, so the validity of individual claims has not yet been tested.

The ruling states: "The relevant damage occurred in China. The Applicants parted with their money in China." The false representations were made there too, and the contracts were signed there. The judge sided with the Director of Public Prosecutions, who heads the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and brought the case.

Who is behind the case

London's Metropolitan Police seized the bitcoin during an investigation into Zhimin Qian. She was jailed last year for more than 11 years after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering. The Ponzi scheme ran from 2014 to 2017 through the company Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology.

According to the ruling, at least 128,409 investment contracts were signed, and investors paid in about RMB 40.2 billion (roughly £4.1 billion). Some of them got back RMB 34.1 billion. Qian converted the rest into bitcoin and fled to Britain in 2017.

At the time of Qian's trial the seized coins were valued at roughly $7 billion, and today they are worth about $5 billion. In March the victims challenged a proposed compensation arrangement built on a Chinese redress scheme. They argued it would leave British authorities with most of the gain in bitcoin's value. Law firm Candey then represented about 5,700 victims.

Why English law would have been better for victims

The Financial Times reported that English law was seen as far more favorable to the victims. It would have let them claim the coins themselves instead of queuing as creditors for compensation. The judge added that the bitcoin was bought in China, so tracing the coins in England cannot restore rights the victims lost under Chinese law at the time of purchase.

Thousands of victims have applied under the Proceeds of Crime Act. To succeed, each must show a proprietary interest in the coins, since the law creates no broader compensation scheme for crime victims. Prosecutors had earlier warned that some claims would give a small group of victims and litigation funders more than they actually lost.

What happens next

Law firm Fieldfisher, which represents the claimants, is appealing. The case stays in London and will not move to a Chinese court. Prosecutors had said before that victims could be compensated through a redress scheme run from China. The next stage is expert evidence on Chinese law and a hearing to establish whether any victim can prove an interest in the bitcoin.

Unnamed Treasury officials, the FT reported last year, discussed whether the coins could help fill a gap in public finances. If London decides to sell its share, it would have to exchange Bitcoin for dollars on the open market, where the coin trades around $83,000. The US already set up a strategic bitcoin reserve in March 2025, and addresses linked to its government hold $25.8 billion in crypto, according to Arkham Intelligence.