The verdict handed down by the Royal Court of Southwark against Qian Zhimin, the principal offender in the case involving the laundering of 60,000 bitcoins, has been in effect for several days, yet this high-profile cryptocurrency case continues to unfold. Qian Zhimin was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison for money laundering. Since she has already been detained for approximately 18 months as of April 2024, that period will be directly deducted from her total sentence.
Under the UK’s "halfway automatic release" rule, offenders with determinate sentences can transition to community supervision after serving half their term. Based on this, she is expected to be released in late February 2030.
01 Latest Disclosure: Hidden Assets Come to Light
On the eve of the criminal trial set for September 2025, Qian Zhimin finally provided police with the access code to a digital device and the passwords to two cryptocurrency wallets.
This belated cooperation led investigators to a startling discovery—beyond the previously identified 61,000 bitcoins, she also held additional assets worth up to £67 million in bitcoin and XRP.
This revelation further increased the total value of assets involved in the case, drawing even more attention to today’s (November 17) High Court hearing regarding the disposition of the 60,000 bitcoins.
02 The Path of Crime: Money Laundering from China to the UK
Qian Zhimin’s criminal activities trace back to March 2014, when she established the company "Blue Sky Great" in China. The company engaged in long-term financial fraud, which unraveled in early 2017. More than 128,000 victims (investors) were affected, with total funds involved reaching approximately £4.6 billion.
In June 2014, Qian Zhimin used the name of one of her partners in the Blue Sky Great case to open an account on Huobi and began funneling investor funds into this account, exchanging them for bitcoin.
By the time Chinese authorities launched their investigation (2016–2017), Qian Zhimin had already acquired over 70,000 bitcoins.
Prior to the case’s exposure, she transferred all her bitcoins from Huobi into a cold wallet stored on her personal laptop. On July 26, 2017, she fled the country under a false identity, dispersed the virtual assets from her laptop, and concealed them in Thailand.
After arriving in the UK on September 16, 2017, Qian Zhimin recruited Jian Wen as her "clean hands" intermediary and, in two separate trips, retrieved both the laptop and all the bitcoins.
03 Bitcoin’s Astonishing Surge: From 2,815 RMB to 750,000 RMB
According to data disclosed by Caixin, Qian Zhimin’s average purchase price for bitcoin was only 2,815 RMB per coin (exact calculation method unknown).
By the time she was sentenced in the UK, the price of bitcoin had soared to 750,000 RMB per coin—a more than 266-fold increase.
This extraordinary appreciation means that, even without considering the newly discovered £67 million in other cryptocurrencies, the original 61,000 bitcoins alone are now worth far more than the total losses suffered by Blue Sky Great’s investors.
04 Asset Disposition: Sino-British Cooperation in Asset Recovery
Regarding the disposition of assets frozen by UK judicial authorities, the British side has not yet advanced to the stage of returning or sharing assets with Chinese officials.
On October 30, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau, which is investigating the Blue Sky Great case, announced that Chinese police continue to work with UK law enforcement on cross-border fugitive pursuit and asset recovery, making every effort to recoup losses for the investors.
On October 15, 2025, UK prosecutors proposed a "Compensation Scheme" for Chinese victims during a preliminary hearing. This plan is currently pending court review and approval.
05 Two Paths for Victims to Recover Their Funds
Chinese investors affected by the case currently have two main avenues to seek recovery of their funds.
The first is to file a claim directly with a UK court having jurisdiction, based on Section 281 of Part 5 of the UK Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
The second is to pursue recovery through international judicial cooperation facilitated by the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau.
In May 2024, the Hedong Branch publicly announced that since February 2018, it has continuously collaborated with law enforcement agencies in the UK and other countries to pursue fugitives and recover assets.
For loss verification, the official "Blue Sky Great Liquidation Task Force" began registration via a mini-program in 2022 and opened two rounds of supplementary registration in 2023.
After Qian Zhimin’s guilty plea, Tianjin police issued another notice on October 30, 2025, stating that any investors who have not yet completed registration can verify their information between October 31 and December 29, 2025. The results of this verification will serve as the basis for subsequent asset distribution.
Outlook
The exponential growth of bitcoin’s price—from 2,815 RMB per coin at the time of Qian Zhimin’s purchase to 750,000 RMB per coin at sentencing—means that the recovered assets may be sufficient to cover all the losses suffered by investors in the Blue Sky Great case.
Today (November 17), the UK High Court will once again hold a hearing on the disposition of the 60,000 bitcoins. For more than 128,000 Chinese victims, this hearing represents a critical step toward the recovery of their funds.
