--- title: "Chinese prosecutors seek confiscation of 61,896 BTC seized in UK Qian case" description: "Prosecutors in Tianjin applied to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK, and the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court accepted the application, The Paper reported, according to Decrypt and CoinDesk. Decrypt put the coins' value at about $5.1 billion at a price near $82,000.…" language: en canonical: "https://whycoinmoves.com/en/events/bitcoin-china-seeks-seize-61-800-4164ce7516a9b9" published: 2026-10-22T06:26:57.000Z updated: 2026-10-22T10:13:03.000Z indexable: true --- # Chinese prosecutors seek confiscation of 61,896 BTC seized in UK Qian case Prosecutors in Tianjin applied to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK, and the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court accepted the application, The Paper reported, according to Decrypt and CoinDesk. Decrypt put the coins' value at about $5.1 billion at a price near $82,000.… Attributed sources: [CoinDesk](), [Decrypt]() ## Key facts Prosecutors in Tianjin applied to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK, and the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court accepted the application, The Paper reported, according to Decrypt and CoinDesk. Decrypt put the coins' value at about $5.1 billion at a price near $82,000. The court opened a six-month notice period; a parallel dispute continues in London. Evidence strength: Multiple publishers, 2 publisher group(s) (CoinDesk, Decrypt); this describes source coverage, not truth or causation. After site detection, observed returns were 5 minutes: -0.02% (22/10/2026, 06:26 → 22/10/2026, 06:31, UTC; Gate · USDT); 1 hour: -0.41% (22/10/2026, 06:26 → 22/10/2026, 07:26, UTC; Gate · USDT). Unlisted windows are unavailable. In the preceding 30 days, the 99th percentile of absolute hourly returns was 1.23% (OKX · USDT; cutoff 22/10/2026, 06:26, UTC). This hourly baseline is not directly comparable with a minute move. ## Returns after site detection | Window | Return | BTC | Difference from BTC | Actual sampled interval (UTC) | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 5 minutes | -0.02% | -0.02% | 0.00 pp | 22/10/2026, 06:26 → 22/10/2026, 06:31 | Gate · USDT | | 1 hour | -0.41% | -0.41% | 0.00 pp | 22/10/2026, 06:26 → 22/10/2026, 07:26 | Gate · USDT | | 24 hours | — | — | — | — | — | ## Historical hourly baseline | Metric | Value | | --- | --- | | Ready | true | | Coverage | 100.0% (720/720) | | Median absolute hourly return | 0.14% | | 99th percentile of absolute hourly returns | 1.23% | | BTC beta | 1.00 | | Source / cutoff (UTC) | OKX · USDT / 22/10/2026, 06:26 | ## Claims and open questions - Prosecutors in Tianjin are seeking to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK, along with about 72,746 units each of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin SV, roughly 3.6 million XRP and some 70 million Dogecoin, Decrypt reported, citing a court notice first reported by The Paper. - Prosecutors said Qian's scheme raised more than 40.38 billion yuan and left more than 102,000 investors with losses of about 19.98 billion yuan, according to Decrypt. - CoinDesk reported that the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court accepted the confiscation request on October 13 and opened a six-month period for victims to join, days after a UK High Court ruled Chinese law should govern victims' claims to the coins. - How the UK courts and authorities will treat China's confiscation bid given the parallel London proceedings over the same coins, and whether claimant lawyers' planned appeal of the High Court ruling proceeds. - Whether Qian's remaining seized assets, already converted by UK authorities, will be distributed to victims and under which country's redress scheme. ## Source evidence - [China seeks to seize 61,800 BTC tied to $5.7 billion fraud scheme]() — CoinDesk; published 22/10/2026, 06:24; received 22/10/2026, 06:26 (UTC). - [Chinese Prosecutors Seek to Confiscate $5.1B in Bitcoin Seized by UK in Qian Case]() — Decrypt; published 22/10/2026, 10:09; received 22/10/2026, 10:11 (UTC). ## Recent BTC events and market reactions - [US spot bitcoin ETFs draw $1.08 billion over three trading sessions]() — Published 22/10/2026, 04:41 (UTC) · Multiple publishers (2 publishers) · Market watch · 5m +0.05% / 1h +0.07% - [Bitcoin slips below $82K after Tesla and Meta results unsettle tech markets]() — Published 22/10/2026, 03:51 (UTC) · Multiple publishers (2 publishers) · Market watch · 5m +0.13% / 1h +0.04% - [Bitcoin rises above $84,500 as SpaceX earnings lift tech stocks]() — Published 21/10/2026, 15:13 (UTC) · Multiple publishers (2 publishers) · Market watch · 5m +0.15% / 1h +0.25% - [SpaceX and Tesla boards weigh merger that would combine 30,221 bitcoin]() — Published 21/10/2026, 09:23 (UTC) · Multiple publishers (2 publishers) · General news · 5m +0.08% / 1h -0.21% / 24h -2.08% - [BlackRock files for buffer bitcoin ETF with capped upside and limited losses]() — Published 20/10/2026, 14:28 (UTC) · Multiple publishers (5 publishers) · Market watch · 5m +0.09% / 1h -0.57% / 24h +1.13% - [Full coin archive]() ## Research for this archive - [Altcoin beta to Bitcoin: BTC, ETH, SOL and DOGE hourly returns]() - [Perpetual funding rates and annualized yield: a 2025 comparison]() - [Bitcoin halving and bull markets: evidence from four halvings]() - [Bittensor (TAO): Bitcoin beta, volatility and the AI crypto narrative]() [Methods and limitations]() Publisher count is not independent evidence count. Price changes cannot verify news or prove causation.