China’s Top Court to Study New Standards as Crypto-Related Cases Rise

China’s Supreme People’s Court said it will intensify research into new judicial standards as cases involving virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies, increase.

The Block reported on May 27 that Liu Guixiang, a member of the court’s Judicial Committee, made the remarks at a press briefing. He said the court would conduct in-depth research on trial rules for new types of cases involving virtual assets and cross-border finance.

Liu also said the court would quickly formulate judicial interpretations on civil damages related to insider trading and market manipulation.

The remarks came as China pushes ahead with its 15th Five-Year Plan. The plan includes integrating cybersecurity systems across digital infrastructure and broader governance.

Chinese authorities in February also issued a joint notice expanding the scope of enforcement against financial activities related to virtual assets. At the time, they reaffirmed mainland China’s ban on virtual-asset trading and extended oversight to real-world asset, or RWA, tokenization and offshore yuan-pegged stablecoins.

Still, although virtual-asset trading is banned in mainland China, some courts have recognized Bitcoin and other virtual assets as virtual property in property-rights disputes.

The February notice, however, stated that civil legal acts related to virtual-asset investment are invalid and that investors must bear their own losses.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, has maintained its push to foster the virtual-asset industry. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued its first stablecoin licenses to HSBC and AnchorPoint Financial in April. More recently, it has also moved to introduce a licensing regime for virtual-asset advisory and asset-management services.