Chinese court recognizes Bitcoin as property in 107 BTC theft case

A Chinese court has recognized Bitcoin as property in a theft case, Cointelegraph reported. The People's Court of Qingdao City in Shandong Province sentenced a man surnamed Zhang to 10 years and nine months in prison and fined him 100,000 yuan (about $14,700) for stealing 107 BTC. In 2023, the victim asked Zhang, an acquaintance, for help cashing out 117 BTC, setting up a 12-word seed phrase for wallet recovery in the process. Zhang memorized 11 of the words, inferred the final one to gain access to the wallet, and then transferred and cashed out 107 BTC. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Bitcoin qualifies as "property" under criminal law and can therefore be the subject of theft. The court accepted this argument and issued a guilty verdict.