People's Court Report: Virtual currency disposal can explore overseas compliance monetization and "black hole address" destruction mechanism

The People's Court Daily recently published an article titled "Dealing with Virtual Currency in Criminal Cases: Challenges, Innovations, and Judicial Responsibility", which pointed out that virtual currency has corresponding property attributes and has basically formed a consensus in judicial practice. At present, some courts have also explored the disposal procedures for virtual currencies involved in the case. For example, Futian District in Shenzhen has established a judicial cross departmental joint management platform for involved property, adopting a new management model of "property stillness and information circulation" to achieve "separation of handling and management". In addition, it is also possible to explore the creation of a judicial dedicated wallet, where the private key is encrypted in segments and then stored by the investigating authorities and custodian institutions to ensure the security of virtual currency seizure and storage. For those who need to compensate the victims for their losses or confiscate them, in order to balance the demand for virtual currency involved in the case with mainland regulatory policies, it is possible to explore the possibility of entrusting qualified third-party institutions under the record and supervision of the People's Bank of China, foreign exchange management and other departments to legally exchange virtual currency for legal currency in overseas jurisdictions such as Hong Kong through compliant licensed trading platforms. After realizing the virtual currency overseas, it can be handled in accordance with the provisions of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange's "Letter on Opening Foreign Exchange Accounts and Handling Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments by People's Courts in Foreign Judicial Activities". Virtual currencies that are used for criminal purposes and pose a threat to national security and public interests, such as privacy coins, can be sent to a "black hole address" for destruction and permanent withdrawal from circulation.