Investing in or trading cryptocurrencies is not protected by Chinese law, the High Court of Shandong Province said in public comments on its ruling. The South China Morning Post reports.
In the case at hand, in 2017 the plaintiff entrusted 70,000 yuan ($10,756) to three defendants to purchase unnamed tokens. Shortly thereafter, Chinese authorities banned cryptocurrency trading using fiat currency, and the funds were blocked.
In January 2021, a court in the provincial capital Jinan ruled that the plaintiff’s fraud allegations were unfounded because digital assets have no legal status, and he himself had violated the law. The intermediate court affirmed the ruling.
In reviewing the case, the province’s High Court on August 22 stated that “investing in or trading cryptocurrency is not protected by law.”
In 2020, a court in Shenzhen Province recognised Ethereum as lawful property in a case involving the theft of digital assets.