Investing 30,000 yuan in Bitcoin "disappeared", female college student sued boyfriend for compensation

Source: Huashang.com
Original title: "30,000 Yuan Invested in Bitcoin "Disappeared" Female College Student Sues Boyfriend for Compensation"

Under the guidance of her boyfriend, a female college student in Xi'an paid 30,000 yuan to buy DC coins, hoping to invest by exchanging them for Bitcoins. However, a few months later, she found that the two transaction records could not be found! As a result, the couple broke up, and she sued her boyfriend for compensation, but her boyfriend claimed that the investment platform had taken the money for itself.

After investing in coins under the guidance of my boyfriend, I found that there was no transaction record

Zhang is a female college student at a university in Xi'an. After a chance meeting, she and her schoolmate Li fell in love with each other and developed a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. After the two established a romantic relationship for a while, in November last year, Zhang found that Li had the habit of investing online and had considerable returns, and she envied her. Li saw this and offered to guide her in investment.

Subsequently, Li instructed Zhang to register an account on an online digital currency investment platform and bind a bank card. Li operated Zhang's account and used 10,000 yuan to buy 9,888 DC coins (a type of electronic currency) for Zhang, and then used the DC coins to exchange OTC coins (i.e. Bitcoin) for Zhang . On February 2 this year, Zhang again paid more than 20,000 yuan to buy DC coins according to her boyfriend's instructions.

In March, Zhang found that there were no transaction records in her account, so she went to her boyfriend to ask about it. Li said that he had indeed bought DC coins for Zhang, but he didn't know why there were no transaction records. The two argued endlessly and parted ways.

On June 6 this year, Zhang filed a lawsuit in court, demanding that Li compensate him 30,000 yuan and pay interest.

After trial, the Weiyang District Court held that according to the notices and announcements issued by the People's Bank of China and other departments, virtual currency is not a real currency. DC coin should be a specific virtual commodity, which cannot and should not be circulated and used as currency in the market. Although citizens' investment and trading in illegal DC coins is a personal freedom, it is not protected by law .

Zhang entrusted Li to purchase DC coins, and the two parties formed a commission relationship. However, Zhang's entrustment of Li to invest and trade DC coins is not protected by law in China, so the entrustment between Zhang and Li should be invalid, and the consequences should be borne by Zhang himself .

Although Li operated the plaintiff's account, the money for purchasing DC coins was paid by Zhang himself. Zhang had no direct evidence to prove that Li had appropriated the above-mentioned money for himself. Therefore, his lawsuit request that Li compensate for the investment principal of more than 30,000 yuan and interest was not supported according to law.

Judge reminds: Raising Bitcoin is an illegal public financing behavior

After the verdict was announced, the defendant Li stated that the investment platform not only appropriated the two sums of money that Zhang used to purchase DC coins, but also froze and transferred away DC coins worth 400,000 yuan in his friend's account, making it impossible to recover his investment.

The judge in charge of the case reminded that on September 4, 2017, the People’s Bank of China and other departments issued the “Announcement on Preventing Risks of Token Issuance and Financing”, which stated:

Token issuance financing refers to the financing entity raising so-called "virtual currencies" such as Bitcoin and Ethereum from investors through the illegal sale and circulation of tokens. It is an act of illegal public financing and is suspected of illegal sale of token tickets, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fundraising, financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal activities.

The tokens or "virtual currencies" used in token issuance and financing are not issued by monetary authorities, do not have monetary attributes such as legal tender and compulsory nature, do not have the same legal status as currency, cannot and should not be circulated and used as currency in the market. No organization or individual may illegally engage in token issuance and financing activities. Any so-called token financing trading platform may not engage in the exchange of legal currency and tokens or "virtual currency", and may not buy or sell tokens or "virtual currency" or act as a central counterparty to buy or sell tokens or "virtual currency".

In real life, all kinds of illegal investments are carried out through online trading investment platforms, whose servers are all located abroad. Once investors deposit funds into online trading platforms, the platform organizers can close the platforms at any time and take away the hard-earned money of investors. (Huashang Daily reporter Ning Jun, correspondent Cui Xiaomei)