China Releases Important Signal! "Bitcoin is a Commodity" and Should Be Protected by Law; Multiple Legal Experts Identify It as Property

At a research conference titled "Judicial Identification of Digital Currency Crimes" held in late April by institutions including the Nanjing Municipal People's Procuratorate and the Jiangsu Provincial Law Society's Case Law Research Committee, several legal experts identified Bitcoin as having property attributes, classifiable as a commodity, and should receive legal protection.

In 2021, China clearly announced a complete domestic ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining activities, defining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions as illegal financial activities. However, many cryptocurrency transactions still exist in the market, including cases of cryptocurrency theft and fraud.

During the conference, many experts clearly stated that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies possess property attributes.

The article that published the conference results has since been deleted from WeChat.

According to Chinese cryptocurrency media sources, Zhou Ying, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Nanjing Xuanwu District People's Procuratorate, stated while analyzing a case that although China currently does not recognize the legal status of Bitcoin nor its value through official certification departments, Bitcoin should be classified as a specific virtual commodity with property attributes.

He said, "Bitcoin is a specific virtual commodity with property attributes, and accepting Bitcoin as bribes should be recognized as bribery. Although Bitcoin transactions are considered illegal financial activities in China, Bitcoin is tradable abroad and can be directly exchanged for fiat currency. There are also private exchanges domestically."

"So far, eight countries globally have provided Bitcoin spot ETFs. In a way, Bitcoin has become Gold 2.0, comparable to gold in terms of liquidity, anonymity, immutability, and scarcity. Thus, Bitcoin is like an internet-based commodity with exchange value, matching the fundamental characteristics of property," he continued.

Guo Zhilong from the Internet Law Research Institute at the China University of Political Science and Law also pointed out that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be included in the scope of property protection under criminal law.

He explained, "We can see from the new case library of the People's Court that at least four cases have acknowledged Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as property. Three of the cases involved fraud, fundraising fraud, and illegal fundraising, all recognizing the property attributes of USDT (Tether). Another robbery case also acknowledged Bitcoin's property attributes."

"Bitcoin and other virtual currencies can be considered property and can be traded between individuals. Therefore, civil and criminal law should provide the necessary property protection," he added.

Che Hao from the Law School of Peking University also stated that even if Bitcoin and other digital currency transactions are invalid under civil law, they cannot be directly equated to being invalid under criminal law.

He said, "Overall, there is no essential definition of whether digital currency is property. From the current perspective, digital currency has limited legal space in China but has not been entirely prohibited. It is not contraband, and it can be traded and possesses economic value, which is enough to recognize it as property."

Li Yong, Director of the Legal Policy Research Office at the Nanjing Municipal People's Procuratorate, also stated that from the perspective of legal interests, digital currency has property attributes when it comes to pricing.

He said, "The unique and non-replicable nature of virtual currency makes it difficult to classify as data in the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. The digital era has arrived, and it's reasonable to identify digital currencies based on international transaction prices."