China discloses 107 BTC theft case tied to memorized seed words

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate disclosed a Bitcoin theft case in which a Shandong man surnamed Zhang gained acquaintance Feng’s trust through regular cryptocurrency transactions, persuaded him to move funds to a different wallet, then memorized 11 recovery words and the first letter of a 12th while Feng wrote them down. Zhang later reconstructed the full seed phrase, accessed the wallet and transferred 107 Bitcoin in multiple transactions. The Licang District People’s Court sentenced him to 10 years and nine months in prison and fined him 100,000 yuan after finding he sold the stolen cryptocurrency for 660,000 yuan, while an appeal was rejected by the Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court in November 2025. Prosecutors said the stolen coins were worth about 22.54 million yuan at market prices on the day of the theft, but the criminal amount was calculated using the proceeds Zhang actually obtained. The case also turned on the court’s finding that Bitcoin qualifies as property for criminal-law purposes in China, even though the country banned cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021.