China jails Bitcoin thief for 12 years as UK and Morocco crack down

• Fuzhou court sentences man to over 12 years for Bitcoin theft, classifying crypto as property under criminal law.
• Courts in China, UK, and Morocco impose harsh sentences for violent crypto crimes using traditional property laws.

On May 23, 2026, Cryptopolitan reported that the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China upheld a prison sentence of 12 years and 7 months, plus a 300,000-yuan fine, for a man who stole four Bitcoins worth about $124,000. Despite cryptocurrencies not being recognized as legal tender in China, the court treated Bitcoin as property because it can be possessed, transferred, and has measurable value.

This legal stance allows Chinese authorities to prosecute crypto theft as a traditional property crime. The ruling shows criminal law frameworks apply to digital assets regardless of their regulatory status.

At the same time, courts in the UK and Morocco have sharply cracked down on violent crypto thefts. In the UK, several men were sentenced to prison for robbing victims of cryptocurrency and banking funds. In Morocco, a court handed down a lengthy prison sentence to the organizer of a kidnapping targeting wealthy French crypto investors, also according to Cryptopolitan. Both courts applied existing property crime laws to these cases.

These actions indicate a global trend toward treating crypto assets as property for criminal prosecution. Jurisdictions are using traditional legal tools against physical crypto thefts, showing that regulatory ambiguity does not block enforcement.

As of May 23, 2026, 15:09 UTC, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $75,507.31, down 1.73% in 24-hour volume, according to CoinMarketCap.