New Developments in the Judicial Disposal of Virtual Money: The Supreme Court Research Team Discusses Handling Solutions

In August last year, the Supreme People's Court announced 30 bidding topics, including the judicial disposal of the virtual money involved in the case. Recently, it was learned that Renmin University of China and Southwest University of Political Science and Law became the winning units for this topic.

Recently, a closed-door seminar on "Research on the Disposal of Involved Virtual Money" was held. Attendees included Professor Yang Dong from the Law School of Renmin University of China, Judge Chen Xinwang from the Third Criminal Division of the Supreme People's Court, Engineer Ma Zhe from the First Research Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, and representatives from several enterprises.

At the seminar, Professor Yang Dong, head of the research group from Renmin University of China, stated that the research group has conducted investigations in the United States. A judge from the criminal court of the Beijing Third Intermediate People's Court pointed out that, under the premise of confirming the property attributes of Virtual Money, there are still challenges in aspects such as case classification, calculation of the amount of crime, and identification of the form of crime.

A property trading platform introduced the workflow and latest developments of joint disposal. Engineer Ma Zhe from the Ministry of Public Security suggested adopting a "dual entrustment mechanism," where independent entities both domestically and internationally undertake the disposal tasks. He also proposed enhancing the security of Virtual Money custody through methods such as performance bonds, cold wallets, and insurance.

Currently, the research of the research group at Renmin University of China is still in the preliminary stage and has not reached conclusive viewpoints. In practice, since the beginning of this year, the progress of disposal work across the country has明显放缓, mainly due to doubts about the compliant disposal of the involved Virtual Money.

From the content of the seminar, it can be seen that the following trends may emerge in the future:

1. The handling of the disposal entrusted by the judicial authorities may be transferred from the public security organs to the court execution bureau.

2. The disposal service fees will become more transparent.

3. Inter-departmental cooperation mechanisms will become more common, involving multiple departments such as public security, courts, finance, the central bank, and the foreign exchange administration.

Under the existing policy framework, the disposal of the involved virtual money still needs to be conducted overseas. Future judicial disposal will require both theoretical support and the accumulation and innovation of practical experience.