The high court of China’s southeastern Guangdong province has ruled cryptocurrency investment activities are not protected by law, further clarifying that crypto is not a legitimate currency in the mainland.

See related article: China customs seizes 49 second-hand crypto mining rigs for export

Fast facts

• The Guangdong high court on Tuesday listed a crypto-related virtual asset dispute as one of the 10 key internet cases for 2021.
  

• In this case, a group was accused of deleting the private keys for cryptocurrency XIN, leading to an 11.9 million yuan (US$1.9 million) loss for the plaintiff.
  

• An internet court in Guangzhou, which handled the case, ruled that XIN did not carry the legitimacy of a fiat currency and related investment activities were not protected by law, leaving investors to cop the losses.
  

• In September last year, China outlawed all crypto transactions and crypto mining.
  

• The high court of the eastern province of Shandong also said in August that “the behavior of investing or trading cryptocurrency is not protected by law.”
  

• However, a Shanghai court in August ruled Bitcoin a virtual property.

See related article: Crypto-related crimes in China still high despite ban on transactions