某男子窃取4枚BTC获刑12年7个月，福州法院认定盗窃比特币构成盗窃罪
Odaily Planet Daily News: The Fuzhou Cangshan District People's Procuratorate has disclosed that a man was sentenced by the court to 12 years and 7 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for stealing 4 bitcoins from another person and illegally profiting about 900,000 yuan. The verdict was upheld upon appeal.
According to the case details, at the end of 2020, a person surnamed Wang commissioned a person surnamed Lin to help him liquidate his Bitcoin holdings. While handling Wang's Bitcoin wallet hard drive and computer, Lin stole the wallet's "private key" and related data, transferred the 4 bitcoins to his own account, and then gradually sold them for profit. In 2024, Wang discovered the anomaly in his assets and reported it to the police, leading to Lin's subsequent arrest.
The procuratorate stated that although current Chinese regulations clearly state that virtual currencies do not have the status of legal tender, Bitcoin possesses value, manageability, and transferability, which aligns with the general characteristics of "property" under criminal law. Therefore, it qualifies as an object of property crimes, and related infringements will also be subject to criminal liability.
