A LONDON JUDGE RULED CHINESE LAW DECIDES WHETHER ZHIMIN QIAN’S VICTIMS OWN ANY OF 61,000 SEIZED BITCOIN — POLICE TOOK THE KEYS IN 2018 — THE COINS SIT IN ENGLAND, THE RIGHTS WERE LOST OR KEPT IN CHINA

A High Court judge in London has ruled that Chinese law, not English law, decides whether the victims of Zhimin Qian’s fraud own any of the more than 61,000 bitcoin the British state now holds. The judgment, DPP v Zhimin Qian [2026] EWHC 2509 (KB), is dated October 12, 2026. Mr Justice Turner put it plainly: “The relevant damage occurred in China.” The victims wanted English law, which might have let them claim the coins as their own instead of standing in line as creditors.

The coins are in England for one reason, and the judgment says what it is. On October 31 and November 1, 2018, the Metropolitan Police searched a London property and a safe deposit box and seized devices used to access the bitcoin and “the ‘keys’ to access some of the Bitcoin.” The victims argued that because the coins now sit in England, English law should follow them. The judge said no. Any tracing in England only works if the victims’ rights under Chinese law “had survived the acquisition of the Bitcoin before control of it moved to England.”

There is no general payout waiting at the end. The judgment says the law used here “does not create any broader compensation scheme” for people who lost money to crime. Each claimant has to prove a property right in the coins. What Chinese law actually says is left for a later hearing. Decrypt reports that Fieldfisher, which acts for claimants, is pursuing an appeal, citing the Financial Times. Decrypt puts the coins at about $5 billion.

Bitcoin has no address on a map. A court finds its home by finding who holds the keys. The Met took them in a London raid, and that is why thousands of people in China must now come to a London court to prove what they own. Until a judge says otherwise, the state that holds the keys holds the coins. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $83,207.