A man traded Bitcoin for his girlfriend, so why did they end up in court over it?

Bitcoin is a virtual encrypted digital currency in the form of P2P . Its peer-to-peer transmission means a decentralized payment system. Moreover, the recent "Bitcoin fever" has caused its transaction volume to increase significantly.

Li and Lin were a couple. Lin heard that he could make a lot of money by speculating in Bitcoin, so he communicated with his girlfriend on WeChat and reached an agreement that he would help Lin to speculate in Bitcoin and make money and manage his finances. However, things did not go as he wished. Not only did he not make any money, but he also lost all his girlfriend's 195,000 yuan. In a fit of anger, Lin took Li to court and asked the court to order Li to compensate him for the investment loss of 195,000 yuan and interest.

When Li bought bitcoin for Lin, he sent Lin the bitcoin account, contract account, fund status and bitcoin price trend, and the latter also logged into the relevant website to check the investment account status. However, without Lin's consent, Li invested his girlfriend's funds in bitcoin futures without authorization, resulting in the loss of all funds of 195,000 yuan.

This case involves a gratuitous entrusted financial management contract. So in the entrusted contract, what kind of behavior of the trustee constitutes a breach of the contract and thus requires the trustee to compensate the principal for the corresponding losses?

Entrusted financial management refers to an economic activity in which the principal entrusts his funds, securities and other assets to the trustee, and the trustee invests the assets in futures, securities and other trading markets or manages them through other financial forms, and the profits are distributed by both parties as agreed or the trustee collects an agency fee.

In this case, based on the special relationship between the two, Li managed Li's finances for free. However, this does not affect the entrusted financial management relationship between the parties. According to the court's investigation, in the WeChat chat records of the two, what was communicated from beginning to end was the spot investment of Bitcoin, and the words "futures" and "margin" were not mentioned. Although Lin had checked the investment account many times, it cannot be naturally inferred that he must have known Li's behavior of purchasing Bitcoin futures. Therefore, Li was at fault in the process of performing the entrustment contract, and he took the initiative to propose to speculate Bitcoin for his girlfriend, indicating that he had a basic understanding of this currency or even a very good understanding. Bitcoin spot and Bitcoin futures are far apart. Under this premise, he still made his own investment in futures. This shows that Lin was intentional or grossly negligent in the investment process.

Article 930 of the Civil Code stipulates that if a trustee suffers losses due to reasons that are not attributable to himself while handling entrusted matters, he may request compensation for the losses from the entruster.

Article 929 of the Civil Code provides that: In a paid entrustment contract, if the entrustor suffers losses due to the fault of the entrustee, the entrustor may request compensation for the losses. In a gratuitous entrustment contract, if the entrustor suffers losses due to the intent or gross negligence of the entrustee, the entrustor may request compensation for the losses.

If a trustee exceeds his authority and causes losses to the principal, he shall compensate for the losses.

Therefore, Lin's request for the return of his investment loss of 195,000 yuan and interest can be supported by the court.

Any investment has risks, and investment risk is also the most important content of the forecast analysis conducted by the investment subject when deciding whether to invest. However, as a digital currency existing in a virtual space, Bitcoin exists based on market confidence. Once there are frequent phenomena such as bad trading platforms "running away", it will cause huge damage to the value of Bitcoin. This is undoubtedly a completely uncontrollable risk for investors, and it will also disrupt the order of the entire market. Therefore, in the situation of "Bitcoin fever", investors must invest more cautiously. (Lvshi Weiyan)