Tianjin Court Moves to Confiscate 61,896 Bitcoin Held in the UK, Testing British Jurisdiction

The 2nd Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin has accepted a prosecution request to confiscate 61,896 bitcoin, along with holdings of bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, bitcoin SV, XRP and dogecoin, in a case that reaches directly into British jurisdiction. The crypto, along with cash, jewellery and properties, was seized in the United Kingdom and is tied to Qian Zhimin, accused of running a fraudulent investment scheme worth more than 40 billion yuan, roughly $5.7 billion.

The confiscation request follows closely on a UK High Court ruling that claims brought by alleged victims over the seized crypto must be governed by Chinese law rather than English law. That decision effectively hands Beijing the stronger hand over assets physically located in Britain, a point of direct relevance for European and UK-based claimants seeking recovery through domestic courts.

Fieldfisher, the law firm representing a group of victims, has said it intends to appeal the ruling, meaning the question of which legal system ultimately controls the disposal of the bitcoin remains unsettled even as the Tianjin court proceeds with its own confiscation process.

The underlying fraud

Qian Zhimin fled China in 2017. Prosecutors say she controlled Tianjin Lantian Gree Electronic Technology, a company that sold unlicensed financial products between April 2014 and August 2017, drawing in more than 102,000 investors. Losses to victims are put at close to 20 billion yuan. The bitcoin and other digital assets at the centre of the UK proceedings are understood to represent proceeds of that scheme.

A path to registration

The Tianjin court has opened a six-month registration window, via an online platform, for parties with an interest in the case to come forward. Investors who do not register within that period retain the right to seek reimbursement from whatever assets are eventually recovered, according to the court.

Other seizures

Elsewhere, authorities in Argentina's Santa Fe province reported their first cryptocurrency seizure, linked to an international scam worth about $400,000; the provincial government has enabled a wallet to return the funds to victims. In the United States, officials announced the confiscation of $1 billion in stablecoins on the Tron network, tied to Iranian sanctions evasion, in a move dated May 2026.