Rulings in China, the UK and Morocco covered Bitcoin theft, a wrench attack and kidnappings targeting crypto holders, highlighting how courts are treating digital assets as property and addressing offline crypto crime.
Courts in China, the UK and Morocco handed down major sentences in separate cryptocurrency crime cases involving theft, violent coercion and kidnappings. In Fuzhou, China, a court upheld a 12-year, 7-month sentence and a 300,000-yuan fine for a man identified as Lin, who stole four Bitcoin after copying wallet private key data during a 2020 liquidation request and sold the coins for about 900,000 yuan, or roughly $124,000. Prosecutors said the case reinforces that Bitcoin can be treated as property under Chinese criminal law even though it is not legal tender. In Hertfordshire, England, four men received prison terms after a wrench attack in which a 36-year-old City worker was beaten, taken home and had more than £10,000 drained from his bank and cryptocurrency accounts using facial verification while he was unconscious; a fifth defendant received a community sentence for money laundering. In Morocco, Mohamed Hamid Bajou was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating kidnappings targeting wealthy crypto holders in France, including the abduction of Ledger co-founder David Balland. Together, the cases show increasing law enforcement focus on offline threats to digital asset holders.