China Wants the $5 Billion in Bitcoin Britain Seized, Days After a Ruling Boosted the UK's Odds of Keeping It

The biggest bitcoin seizure Britain has ever made is now the prize in a three way tug of war. A court in Tianjin has opened its own proceeding to confiscate the 61,896 bitcoin that UK authorities took from convicted fraudster Qian Zhimin, a stash worth about $5.1 billion at roughly $82,200 per coin.

The move came one day after a London judge ruled that Chinese law, not English law, decides whether her Chinese victims own those coins. That ruling was seen as improving the UK Treasury's chances of eventually keeping most of them. Now a foreign state, a crowd of victims and a government that could book the money are all in the same fight.

London's ruling

On October 12, Mr Justice Turner in the High Court ruled that Chinese law governs victims' property claims to the bitcoin under the Proceeds of Crime Act. "The relevant damage occurred in China. The applicants parted with their money in China. The alleged fraudulent representations were made in China," he wrote, as CoinDesk reported.

"Looking at the circumstances as a whole, this case is manifestly and overwhelmingly more closely connected with China than with England," the judge added, according to the Law Gazette. It did not matter that the bitcoin later came to England.

The ruling did not decide who owns the coins or order any transfer. But it narrows the victims' route, and CoinDesk, which valued the haul at £3.8 billion ($5 billion), says it improves the chances that the Treasury could end up retaining most of it. The Crown Prosecution Service says further hearings will decide whether any victims can prove an interest.

The victims are not done. On October 16 the court gave about 16,000 Chinese applicants permission to appeal the governing law ruling, TokenPost reported. Law firm Fieldfisher, which represents some of them, is seeking to appeal.

Tianjin's counter

In a notice published October 13, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court said it had accepted, on September 28, an application from local prosecutors to forfeit Qian's illegal gains, Unchained reported.

The list goes well beyond the 61,896 bitcoin. It includes about 72,700 bitcoin cash, roughly 3.6 million XRP, bitcoin SV, bitcoin gold, the proceeds of about 70 million dogecoin that UK authorities already sold, cash in dollars, euros and pounds, jewelry, bank deposits and investments. Prosecutors argued that Qian fled and could not be found after a year on a wanted list, and that the property is criminal proceeds to be forfeited, apart from sums returned to victims.

The court says Qian was the actual controller of Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, which from April 2014 to August 2017 sold fake wealth management products promising guaranteed principal and high returns. It took in about 40.4 billion yuan, and roughly 102,000 investors lost close to 20 billion yuan.

Close relatives and other interested parties have six months to join. Victims can register through a WeChat mini program, and those who stay out still qualify for refunds from recovered assets. The notice does not amount to a formal request for Britain to hand anything over.

How the coins got to London

Qian left China in July 2017 with a computer holding her bitcoin wallet and reached London that September. UK police arrested her in April 2024, and in November 2025 a London court sentenced her to 11 years and eight months.

Her coins now sit in British custody while three claimants circle. For London, the case lands as it tries to keep its relationship with Beijing steady, the same balancing act behind its decision to tell Brussels it will not put tariffs on Chinese cars. Whoever wins, about $5 billion in bitcoin is about to find out which country's courts really have the last word.

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