Beijing’s police authority has unveiled a plan for liquidating cryptocurrencies confiscated in criminal cases by selling them through licensed exchanges in Hong Kong, a move that could aid the southern city’s efforts to become a virtual asset hub.
The municipal Public Security Bureau in Beijing said on Thursday that it has partnered with the China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX) to offload seized cryptoassets through regulated platforms in Hong Kong.
Under the “Framework Agreement on Handling Seized Virtual Currencies”, CBEX will be responsible for appointing third-party agencies to sell the assets through the exchanges. Proceeds will be converted into yuan and deposited in designated accounts, according to a statement posted on the bureau’s official WeChat account.
This marks the first time that a mainland agency has detailed a process for disposing of confiscated cryptoassets, while working within Hong Kong’s virtual asset regime to offload them.
Mainland China enforces a strict ban on crypto trading, complicating efforts to handle such assets seized by law enforcement. From 2019 to June 2024, Chinese authorities publicly documented 2,206 criminal cases involving digital currencies, according to Wolters Kluwer’s database.
In a September report, the People’s Court Daily, a newspaper under the Supreme People’s Court, estimated that the value of cryptocurrencies awaiting disposal by Chinese authorities by the end of 2022 exceeded several billion US dollars. In 2023, the value of crypto involved in criminal cases surged to 430.7 billion yuan (US$60 billion), a 12-fold increase from the previous year.
