Man accuses wife of using CCTV cameras to steal $172 million bitcoin from his hardware wallet

The alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin has triggered a High Court dispute testing how English property law applies to digital assets. What to know : A U.K. High Court judge has allowed a lawsuit over the alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin, now worth about $172 million, to proceed to trial. The husband, Ping Fai Yuen, claims his estranged wife secretly obtained his hardware wallet recovery phrase via home CCTV and transferred the bitcoin without his permission in 2023. While the judge rejected his primary claim of conversion on the grounds that it traditionally applies only to physical property, the case will continue under alternative legal claims that could still enable recovery of the bitcoin.