China’s highest court is quietly laying the groundwork for a new legal approach to digital assets, signaling a shift driven less by crypto adoption and more by the surge in cybercrime tied to virtual property.
In its latest 2025 edition of the Digital Rule of Law journal, the Supreme People’s Court acknowledged that existing legal tools are struggling to keep pace with blockchain-based assets, online transactions, and data-driven financial activity. The publication reflects growing concern that gaps in digital law are leaving courts ill-equipped to deal with disputes involving virtual property.
Key Takeaways
China’s top court says existing laws are no longer sufficient to handle digital assets, virtual property, and blockchain-related disputes.
Cryptocurrencies remain banned for trading, but courts increasingly recognize them as virtual property with legal relevance in certain cases.
Rising crypto-related crimes and disputes are pushing China toward clearer legal frameworks, even without lifting the crypto ban.
Rather than loosening China’s strict stance on cryptocurrencies, the court’s focus is on control, clarity, and enforcement.
Courts Prepare for a Digital Economy Without Legal Crypto Trading
While crypto trading remains banned nationwide, Chinese courts increasingly recognize that digital assets still exist in practice – and disputes involving them are rising. This contradiction has pushed the judiciary to refine how virtual property is treated under civil and commercial law, even when transactions themselves may violate public policy.
The court’s publication highlights plans to modernize commercial rules around electronic transactions and introduce legally recognized digital records that could function as a new category of property. These changes would give courts clearer authority when handling cases tied to hacked assets, online fraud, or disputed ownership of virtual items.
Notably, the journal references overseas legal reforms, including updates to US commercial law, as examples of how digital contracting and distributed-ledger assets can be addressed within traditional legal systems.
Data, AI, and Virtual Property Move to the Center of Judicial Reform
Crypto is only one piece of a broader digital overhaul. The court’s roadmap also covers data ownership, AI-generated content, algorithmic accountability, and online criminal procedure. Together, these areas reflect how rapidly China’s legal system is being reshaped around a data-first economy.
Recent amendments to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, now in force, ban the unauthorized collection or use of legally held data. Meanwhile, specialized internet courts have been expanded to handle disputes involving digital property, privacy violations, and online market manipulation.
In parallel, virtual assets were formally brought under China’s anti-money laundering framework, marking the first major update to those rules in nearly two decades.
Digital Yuan Stands Alone as Legal Tender
Despite the broader legal reforms, China’s stance on cryptocurrencies remains unchanged. All private crypto issuance, trading, and circulation are still prohibited. The only state-approved digital currency is the digital yuan, issued by the People’s Bank of China.
What is changing is not policy toward crypto markets, but the judiciary’s readiness to deal with the consequences of a digital economy that continues to exist despite bans.
As cybercrime cases multiply and digital assets appear more frequently in lawsuits, China’s courts are positioning themselves to assert stronger oversight – even in areas where formal markets are forbidden.
