Analysis: Chinese Victims in Qian Zhimin Case Unlikely to Receive High Compensation by Banking on Bitcoin Price Surge

Odaily News: The hearing for the Qian Zhimin Bitcoin civil recovery case was held this week. The presiding judge, Judge Turner, has clearly indicated that if multiple legal teams, in the absence of fundamental conflicts of interest, pursue litigation based on the same factual foundation and similar legal issues but with different strategies and paces, the proceedings will be severely delayed, and legal costs will rapidly accumulate to high levels. Ultimately, it is likely the assets that the victims hope to recover that will be eroded. The court's rational focus is not on the tragic differences between individual victims but on the controllability at the judicial procedural level. Meanwhile, the UK prosecution (DPP) still maintains that its proposal submitted to the court on October 15, 2025—to set aside (provision) a certain amount of assets in the civil recovery proceedings for a collective compensation arrangement for the large number of Chinese victims—is the most effective and realistic solution. This means that once the amount of these assets (funds) is set aside, they can be transferred to the Chinese government in the future through cooperation between Chinese and British law enforcement agencies to implement its specific victim compensation plan, compensating victims upon verification of their identities and losses. Under this path, it is unrealistic for Chinese victims to hope for a relatively "satisfactory" high compensation by banking on years of Bitcoin price surges. The compensation boundary implied by this proposal, at most, points to the actual losses confirmed and registered by the victims with Chinese police. (Caixin)