Analysis: Chinese victims in the Qian Zhimin case hoping for high compensation through Bitcoin's price surge may be unrealistic

Odaily According to news, the hearing for the Qian Zhimin Bitcoin civil recovery case was held this week. Judge Turner, presiding over the case, clearly pointed out that if multiple legal teams, in the absence of fundamental conflicts of interest, advance litigation based on the same factual foundation and similar legal issues but with different strategies and processes, the proceedings will be severely delayed, legal costs will rapidly accumulate to high levels, and what will ultimately be eroded is likely to be the assets that the victims hope to recover. The court's rational focus is not on the tragic differences between individual victims but on the controllability at the level of judicial procedures. Meanwhile, the UK prosecution (DPP) still maintains that its proposal submitted to the court on October 15, 2025—to reserve (provision) a certain amount of assets in the civil recovery proceedings for the overall compensation arrangement of the numerous Chinese victims—is the most effective and realistic solution. This means that once the amount of these assets (funds) is reserved, in the future, with the cooperation of Chinese and British law enforcement agencies, the assets (funds) can be transferred to the Chinese government 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 relatively "satisfactory" high compensation through years of Bitcoin price surges. The compensation boundary implied by this proposal, at most, points to the actual losses confirmed by the victims through registration with Chinese police. (Caixin)