Chinese courts will study rules for adjudicating cryptocurrency cases, continuing the February crackdown on RWA and stablecoin policies!

The Supreme People's Court of China announced that it will strengthen research into new types of cases involving virtual assets and cross-border finance, consolidating divergent rulings from courts across the country to continue the strict regulatory approach.

On May 27, the Supreme People's Court stated that due to the recent increase in cases involving virtual assets, it will enhance research into the judicial rules for new types of cases, with cross-border financial cases being one of the two main focus areas. According to Bloomingbit citing the content of the Supreme Court press conference, this statement continues the regulatory stance outlined in the joint notice on virtual asset activities issued by relevant departments in February.

Liu Guixiang: Virtual assets and cross-border finance are listed as two major new case research directions

Liu Guixiang, a member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court, pointed out at the press conference that the Supreme Court will "deeply study" the judicial rules for new types of cases involving virtual assets and cross-border finance, and will also issue judicial interpretations on civil compensation for insider trading and market manipulation cases.

Since 2021, mainland China has banned domestic virtual asset trading, but in recent years, lawsuits and criminal cases arising from over-the-counter trading, cross-border payments, underground currency exchanges, and other activities have continued to accumulate. This has led the Supreme Court to treat related cases as "new types of cases" due to the lack of consistent judicial standards.

February joint notice expands crackdown scope to RWA and offshore RMB stablecoins

This statement continues the joint notice issued in February 2026 by the People's Bank of China and other departments regarding virtual asset activities. The notice reaffirmed the ban on domestic virtual asset trading and extended regulation to "real asset tokenization" (RWA), while also including offshore RMB stablecoins within the scope of enforcement.

The notice explicitly states that civil activities involving virtual asset investments are "absolutely invalid from the outset," and related investors must bear their losses themselves. This is also one of the backgrounds for the Supreme Court's recent focus on strengthening research into civil compensation rulings.

Mainland courts recognize virtual property, Hong Kong takes an opposite approach

Although China has banned virtual asset trading nationwide, some mainland courts have recognized Bitcoin and other virtual assets as "virtual property" in property rights disputes, leading to long-standing divergence in civil rulings on virtual asset cases. The direction of the Supreme Court's current research is expected to unify the scattered rulings from various courts into a more consistent judicial standard.

Contrary to mainland China, Hong Kong continues to open up to virtual asset businesses, recently licensing stablecoin issuers and introducing licensing systems for virtual asset advisory and asset management services, with regulatory approaches increasingly diverging from those of mainland China.

• This article is reprinted with permission from: "Chain News"
• Original title: "China's Supreme Court to Study Judicial Rules for Cryptocurrency-Related Cases: Continuing the February Joint Notice Direction"
• Original author: Elponcrab