Recent judicial rulings in the field of virtual money trading have attracted widespread attention. A case announced by the People's Court of Yubei District, Chongqing on July 9, 2024, made a thought-provoking judgment against an operator engaged in the exchange of USDT and Renminbi.

In this case, the parties originally carried out the exchange business between virtual money and fiat currency independently. Later, they introduced financial support and collaborated with others, also opening multiple accounts in the names of friends and family to expand their business scale. The court ultimately determined that their actions constituted "engaging in fund payment and settlement on a virtual money payment platform" and sentenced them to 3 years of imprisonment along with a fine of 5 million yuan. This determination is not commonly seen in practice.

It is worth noting that while there has been a consensus in recent years to classify the buying and selling of virtual money spreads as a disguised foreign exchange transaction and to sentence it as illegal business operations, this case took a different qualitative path. Although the appellate court upheld the original ruling, there are still differing opinions in the legal community regarding the factual findings and judgment results of this case.

From the disclosed case details, the business model of the parties involved seems to be essentially no different from that of general virtual money exchange operators. The case involves a significant amount of funds, with transaction volumes reportedly as high as 14 billion yuan. This ruling may bring new legal considerations to the virtual money exchange industry.

The increase in such cases also sends a clear signal to the market: in the field of Virtual Money trading, legal boundaries need to be handled with caution, as the seemingly substantial profits may conceal legal risks.