Chinese victims in the Qian Zhimin case may only recover their principal and interest.

BlockBeats news, October 13 — According to Caixin, the UK court has made an important ruling regarding a cross-border asset recovery dispute involving more than 61,000 bitcoins tied to the illegal fundraising case of Tianjin Blue Sky Gerui in China. On October 12 local time, a judgment obtained by Caixin from the UK High Court showed that the High Court ruled that Chinese investors' property rights claims over the bitcoins involved should be determined under Chinese law rather than English law.

This means that about 16,000 Chinese victims who have already participated in the UK recovery proceedings may be unable to share in the huge appreciation gains brought by the surge in Bitcoin prices through English law, and may at most only recover their principal and interest.

Qian Zhimin purchased Bitcoin through Huobi in 2014 at an average price of about 2,815 yuan. Since then, the price of Bitcoin has risen sharply. Despite multiple rounds of severe volatility, as of October 12, 2026, the price of Bitcoin was around 560,000 yuan, about 200 times the average purchase price Qian Zhimin paid at the time.

During court hearings held from July 7 to 9 this year, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the UK Crown Prosecution Service argued for the application of Chinese law, and the litigation receiver of Tianjin Blue Sky Gerui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. supported this position, while lawyers representing Chinese individual investors argued for the application of English law, or both Chinese and English law. The court ultimately supported the position of the UK prosecuting authority.