Two Courts, One Hoard: China Moves to Confiscate the 61,896 BTC Britain Seized From Qian Zhimin
China has opened its own case to confiscate the bitcoin British police took from Qian Zhimin. A Tianjin court accepted the application on September 28 but only announced it on October 13, the day after a London judge ruled that Chinese law decides whether her alleged victims own those same coins. Neither court has said whose they are.
The two moves came a day apart. On October 12, Mr Justice Turner of the High Court of England and Wales handed down a ruling on which law governs thousands of claims to the bitcoin seized in the Qian case [3]. On October 13, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court published a notice that it had accepted, on September 28, a prosecutors' application to confiscate Qian's illegal proceeds, including 61,896.41552945 BTC [1][2].
The coins are not in China. They have been in British custody since the Metropolitan Police searched a London property and a safe deposit box in late 2018 [3][5].
A note on language before going further. What follows about the origins of the money is either an allegation by Chinese prosecutors or a fact the parties in London agreed to assume for the purpose of one hearing. No Chinese court has tried Qian.
What London decided, and what it left open
The bar is high. The judgment notes that it is not enough to show you lost money and could sue as a creditor; each applicant has to show a proprietary interest in the property itself [3]. The July hearing was about the step before that: which legal system decides whether such an interest exists.
Turner's answer was Chinese law, whether the claims are analyzed under the Rome I and Rome II rules retained in English law or under common-law conflict rules [3]. He also rejected the argument that English law should apply by default until Chinese law is proved [3]. What he did not do is just as important. No evidence on the content of Chinese law has been heard yet, and whether any victim has rights in the bitcoin is, in his words, a matter "for a later stage" [3].
The facts recited in the judgment carry a caveat of their own. They are assumed facts, agreed between the parties to resolve the choice-of-law question, not findings [3]. They include purchases of more than 100,000 BTC between 2014 and 2017, and a seized pool that "includes more than 61,000 Bitcoin" [3].
Four days later, on October 16, the court granted the applicants permission to appeal, according to Caixin [4].
What Tianjin wants
According to the application summarized in the court's notice, Qian was the actual controller of Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, which prosecutors allege sold fake, unlicensed wealth-management products across China from April 2014 to August 2017 [1][2]. Prosecutors put the money raised at more than 40.378 billion yuan, and losses at more than 19.977 billion yuan across more than 102,000 investors [1][2].
Qian left China in July 2017 with computers holding bitcoin wallets [1][6]. Prosecutors in Tianjin's Hedong district approved her arrest in January 2018, and Interpol issued a Red Notice that February [6]. Because she has been wanted for more than a year without appearing, prosecutors are using a procedure that allows confiscation in the suspect's absence [1][2].
The ask: recover the proceeds and anything bought with them, return what the law requires to victims, and confiscate the rest [1][2]. Besides the bitcoin, the list covers 72,745.79502 BCH, 3,605,989.9995 XRP, the proceeds of roughly 70 million DOGE already sold by UK authorities, cash in dollars, euros and pounds, jewelry and financial assets [1].
Interested parties, including Qian's relatives, have six months to join. Victims can register through a WeChat mini program, and those who don't still keep their right to repayment from anything recovered [1][2]. The court will hear the case once the window closes [1].
Four claimants, one pile of coins
- Tianjin prosecutors want the 61,896.41552945 BTC and the other assets confiscated, net of victim repayments. Status: accepted September 28, notice period running from October 13 [1].
- The DPP, through the CPS, wants a civil recovery order in London. It argued that Chinese law applies "on any analysis" [3][5].
- About 16,000 alleged victims, represented by counsel instructed by Fieldfisher, want declarations that the bitcoin is theirs. They lost the choice-of-law round and won permission to appeal [3][4].
- Joint litigation receivers of Lantian Gerui, appointed at the request of one alleged victim, are also claiming assets held by the DPP. They backed Chinese law; whether their claim is valid is, the judge wrote, "a question for another day" [3].
The coins sit in Britain, the law that decides the victims' claims in London is China's, and China now runs a forum of its own. That is the knot.
The numbers in the record don't line up either. Tianjin's notice lists 61,896.41552945 BTC [1]; the London judgment's assumed facts say "more than 61,000" [3]; the CPS has said over 60,000 [5]. China counts more than 102,000 investors with losses [1]; the CPS speaks of more than 128,000 victims and losses of about £600 million [5]. Different authorities, different counting methods, and neither explains its own.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| March 31, 2014 | Lantian Gerui incorporated in Tianjin [3] |
| Apr 2014 to Aug 2017 | Period of the alleged fraud [1] |
| Around July 26, 2017 | Qian crosses into Myanmar; reaches London in September [3] |
| Jan and Feb 2018 | Arrest approved in Tianjin; Interpol Red Notice [6] |
| Oct 31 to Nov 1, 2018 | Metropolitan Police search and seize devices and keys [3] |
| April 2024 | Qian arrested in the UK [3][6] |
| Nov 11, 2025 | Sentenced to 11 years and 8 months at Southwark [5][7] |
| July 7 to 9, 2026 | High Court hearing on governing law [3] |
| Sept 28, 2026 | Tianjin court accepts confiscation application [1] |
| Oct 12, 2026 | High Court rules Chinese law applies [3] |
| Oct 13, 2026 | Tianjin publishes notice; six-month window opens [1] |
| Oct 16, 2026 | High Court grants permission to appeal [4] |
Twelve years separate the company's founding from this month's rulings, and the two court tracks only converged in the last four weeks.
The size of it, in bitcoin terms
Measured without a price: by our node's count (a full, unpruned Bitcoin Core), the protocol's reward schedule had issued 20,102,290.6 BTC through block 972,732, mined at 07:04 UTC on October 23, 2026 [8]. The 61,896.41552945 BTC in Tianjin's application are 0.31% of that, roughly one in every 325 bitcoin ever issued.
For scale, the two Mt. Gox addresses we checked on-chain in October held 34,358 BTC, as the trustee pushed repayments out to 2027. The Qian hoard is about 1.8 times that. Why total issuance and spendable supply aren't the same number is covered in how many bitcoin exist.
In dollars, Unchained put the hoard at about $5.1 billion on October 22, using CoinGecko's price [9]. That figure moves daily. The coin count doesn't.
What happens next
Three things are pending: the appeal on governing law [4], proof of what Chinese law actually says followed by the individual claims [3], and the Tianjin hearing once the six-month window closes [1]. None of them moves a satoshi on its own. A Tianjin judgment would concern assets sitting in the UK, and none of the sources we reviewed explains how it would be enforced there.
Who holds bitcoin, how much and for how long is what we track from our own node on our supply page. We'll follow both cases and report each ruling with the document in hand.
Sources
Source type in parentheses. Times in UTC.
- The Paper (澎湃新闻), Lantian Gerui case: prosecutors apply to confiscate more than 61,800 bitcoin; court accepts, October 2026 (in Chinese). Reproduces the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court notice of October 13: acceptance on September 28, asset list with 61,896.41552945 BTC, application figures, six-month window, WeChat registration. (Secondary, press reproducing a court document)
- China News Service (中新网), Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate Court accepts Lantian Gerui confiscation application, October 16, 2026 (in Chinese). Summary of the notice, application figures and victims' rights. (Secondary, state news agency)
- High Court of Justice, King's Bench Division, DPP v Zhimin Qian and Jian Wen [2026] EWHC 2509 (KB), Mr Justice Turner, October 12, 2026. Assumed facts, parties, section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act and the governing-law conclusion (paragraphs 1 to 9, 18 to 20 and 235 to 246). (Primary, judgment)
- Caixin Global, China-U.K. Legal Battle Over $5 Billion in Bitcoin Enters New Phase, October 21, 2026. Permission to appeal granted October 16; roughly 16,000 applicants. (Secondary, business press)
- Crown Prosecution Service, Two people imprisoned for their key roles in a largescale money laundering case, November 11, 2025, and How we prosecuted Europe's biggest crypto money laundering case. Sentence, CPS victim and loss figures, ongoing civil recovery. (Primary, official statement)
- Yicai Global, Tianjin Court to Hear USD5 Billion Crypto Asset Confiscation Case Linked to Qian Zhimin, October 14, 2026. January 2018 arrest approval, February 2018 Red Notice, April 2024 arrest. (Secondary, business press)
- Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, Rex v Zhimin Qian and Seng Hok Ling, sentencing remarks, Southwark Crown Court, November 11, 2025. Offenses and sentence. (Primary, court ruling)
- NodeWitness, cumulative issuance under the protocol's subsidy schedule, computed from our node (full Bitcoin Core, unpruned) through block 972,732 on October 23, 2026; daily series on our supply page. (Primary, own data)
- Unchained, China Opens Its Own Case to Confiscate 61,896 Bitcoin Held by UK Authorities, October 22, 2026. Dollar value at CoinGecko's price. (Secondary, trade press)
More in Supply and holders
Last updated: October 23, 2026