China’s Supreme People’s Court to Study Crypto Rules

The Supreme People's Court announced it will study adjudication rules for virtual currencies and cross-border crypto cases as the number of related cases increases.

At a Beijing press conference on Wednesday, Liu Guixiang, a supreme judge and member of the court's judicial committee, told reporters courts will conduct in-depth research into adjudication rules for “emerging cases involving virtual currencies and cross-border finance.” He added authorities will “move quickly to issue judicial interpretations on civil compensation related to insider trading and market manipulation.”

The work will cover legal standards for new types of disputes and aims to clarify how civil compensation tied to market misconduct should be handled in court.

Officials connected the court's research to the 15th Five-Year Plan, the government strategy that sets economic and technology priorities through 2030 and includes measures to integrate cybersecurity across digital infrastructure and governance.

The announcement follows a February joint notice that expanded regulatory scrutiny of crypto-related financial activity. The notice reaffirmed the ban on cryptocurrency transactions on the mainland and broadened oversight to areas such as tokenization of real-world assets and offshore yuan-linked stablecoins.

That February notice also stated that civil legal acts involving investments in cryptocurrencies would be deemed invalid and that investors would bear any resulting losses.

Several local mainland courts have previously treated cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as virtual property in ownership and dispute cases. The Supreme People's Court described its research as an effort to provide clearer rules for judges handling disputes tied to virtual assets.

Hong Kong has taken different measures. In April the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the region's first stablecoin licences and later warned the public about fraudulent stablecoins falsely claiming ties to licensed issuers. Hong Kong authorities also published conclusions on licensing regimes for virtual asset advisory and virtual asset management services and said they will move forward with final legislative proposals.

The Supreme People's Court did not publish a timetable for the research or for issuing formal judicial interpretations, and Liu did not specify how the court will coordinate with other regulators on cross-border matters.