Web3 Legal Education丨Cryptocurrency theft case, how to determine the price of the currency involved?

Let me ask a question at the beginning:

Zhang San stole Li Si’s virtual currency, and Li Si reported the crime after discovering it. So what crime should Zhang San be convicted of, and how many years should he be sentenced?

Appropriating other people's virtual currency as one's own by illegal means, in practice often involves two types of crimes: illegally obtaining computer information system data and theft. The specific crimes are not uniform in practice. Some people are convicted of illegally obtaining computer information system data, some are convicted of theft, and some courts find that the perpetrator has committed two crimes at the same time, and choose one of the felony punishments.

But no matter which crime is charged, the amount involved is an unavoidable issue.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and other mainstream virtual currencies, altcoins (such as platform coins, Meme coins), have a common feature: large price fluctuations. The sharp rise and fall of currency prices has affected the hearts of countless investors (this may be the excitement and fun of currency speculation).

But in a criminal case, if the currency price rises or falls significantly in a short period of time, how should the amount involved by the perpetrator be determined? Different amounts calculated based on different identification standards may directly determine the future direction of the case.

Article | Lawyer Shao Shiwei

01. Different ways of determining currency prices directly affect the direction of the case

Tell me about a case (to protect privacy, the content of the case has been slightly adapted, just to illustrate the legal issues, the currencies involved in the case (The currency price is not consistent with the actual case):

Zhang San and Li Si met in a group of bullies. Zhang San has been speculating in coins for several years and is considered a relatively senior person in the currency circle. Li Si is a newbie and doesn’t understand anything, so he always asks various 1+1=2 questions in the group. Zhang San is also quite enthusiastic. , every time I see the questions asked by the newbies in the group, I will patiently help answer them. After going back and forth, the two of them get to know each other better and become friends.

One day Li Si asked Zhang San how to operate the transaction. Zhang San asked him to send a screenshot. Li Si casually gave the screenshot of his ImToken wallet page to Li Si. The next day, Li Si found in his wallet. PEPE coins have returned to zero inexplicably? ? I reported the crime immediately. Then Zhang San was arrested and charged with illegal acquisition of computer information system data, and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

It turns out that when Li Si took the screenshot of Zhang San, he didn't pay attention to take out the private key. After seeing this, Zhang San used the private key to restore (import) the wallet and transferred the PEPE coins in Li Si’s wallet address to his own wallet.
According to the second paragraph of Article 285 of the Criminal Law, if the illegal income exceeds 5,000 yuan, or causes economic losses of more than 10,000 yuan, the perpetrator is guilty of illegally obtaining computer information system data or illegally controlling computer information systems and shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years. or detention. The court determined that the PEPE coins transferred by Zhang San were worth 12,000 yuan, and it was generally appropriate to use this amount to determine Zhang San’s eight-month sentence.
But is this case absolutely uncontroversial? of course not.
First of all, Zhang San has no illegal income. Because the PEPE coins transferred into his wallet were transferred to the exchange by Zhang San for speculation, and he lost a dime. There are relevant transaction records, and there is no dispute;
Secondly, the court determined that PEPE The coin value of 12,000 is determined by referring to the real-time price at zero o'clock on the day when Zhang San transferred Li Si's token on an exchange. So is the choice of this time node scientific?
The value of the tokens involved in the case should be based on Li Si’s purchase price, the real-time market price of Zhang San’s transferred tokens, the price at which Zhang San exchanged the tokens for USDT, or should it be based on the judicial audit price (but in this case There is no audit, and the determination of the amount involved in the case (determination of the amount involved in the record made by the police on Zhang San) is directly used as the basis for finalizing the case?
Unfortunately, the real-time price of the PEPE currency at 0:00 that day was determined in the case, which happened to be the highest price point of the day and month. According to the other time points mentioned above, the price of PEPE has not yet exceeded 10,000 yuan, which means it has not reached the starting point for conviction and sentencing in this case.
02. What are the ways to determine currency prices? According to the policy, although virtual currency does not have the same status as legal currency, civil legal actions arising from related transactions are invalid and you must bear the losses yourself. However, as a kind of virtual commodity, its property attributes are recognized by our country. Therefore, at the criminal level, virtual currencies held by citizens are protected by law.
But how to judge the value of virtual currency is another very embarrassing problem in practice. After all, announcements or notices issued by relevant ministries and commissions stipulate that "any organization or individual is not allowed to provide pricing services for virtual currencies." Therefore, no matter which pricing method is used, it violates my country's regulatory policies.
The methods for determining the price of virtual currency commonly used in judicial practice include:
1. Reports issued by price determination agencies and forensic appraisal agencies;
2. The consideration paid for purchasing virtual currency;
3. The consideration for realizing virtual currency;
4. Refer to the price of mainstream virtual currency exchanges;
5. The value is not calculated and will be considered by the court at its discretion;

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