A man sentenced to 12 years and 7 months for stealing 4 BTC, Fuzhou court rules that stealing Bitcoin constitutes theft

Odaily reported that the Cangshan District People's Procuratorate of Fuzhou City disclosed that a man was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for stealing 4 Bitcoins from another person and illegally profiting approximately 900,000 yuan. The verdict was upheld in the second instance.

According to the case details, at the end of 2020, a person surnamed Wang commissioned a person surnamed Lin to assist in liquidating his Bitcoin holdings. While accessing Wang's Bitcoin wallet hard drive and computer, Lin stole the wallet's "private key" and related data, transferred 4 Bitcoins to his own account, and subsequently sold them off for profit. In 2024, Wang discovered the asset anomaly and reported it to the police, leading to Lin's arrest.

The procuratorate stated that although current Chinese regulations clarify that virtual currencies do not hold legal tender status, Bitcoin possesses value, manageability, and transferability, which aligns with the general characteristics of "property" under criminal law. Therefore, it constitutes an object of property crimes, and related infringing actions will also be subject to criminal liability.