[A Man in Qingdao, China, Sentenced to 10 Years and 9 Months for Stealing 107 BTC While 'Helping an Acquaintance Register a Wallet'] BlockBeats News, May 31: The Li Cang District Procuratorate in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, recently handled a Bitcoin theft case. The defendant, Zhang Moumou, obtained the mnemonic phrase while assisting an acquaintance in registering a cryptocurrency wallet and subsequently transferred 107 BTC in multiple transactions. Based on the current market price, the value of the stolen BTC exceeds 50 million RMB. Zhang argued that his actions were a form of "protective takeover," but the prosecution found that he had transferred the stolen BTC through multiple trading platforms and converted it into over 660,000 RMB. The Li Cang District Court sentenced Zhang to 10 years and 9 months in prison for theft in the first trial and imposed a fine of 100,000 RMB; the second trial upheld the original verdict. According to reports, the prosecutor handling the case strictly adhered to laws and judicial policies. After thorough analysis, it was determined that while China's regulatory policies deny the legal currency status of virtual currencies, they do not negate their property attributes or prohibit citizens from legally holding and transferring them. Bitcoin requires computational power, financial investment, and other costs to acquire, giving it economic value. Rights holders can exercise exclusive control through private keys and mnemonic phrases, meeting the core characteristics of "property" under criminal law and making it a valid object of theft. Regarding the valuation, since virtual currencies lack official pricing, the Li Cang District Procuratorate rejected market price estimates and instead used the actual proceeds from the sale, over 660,000 RMB, as the theft amount. This approach ensured accurate conviction, appropriate sentencing, and alignment of crime, responsibility, and punishment. [Original Link]