The court in Sichuan, China, is hearing a case involving the resale of forex using virtual coins, with the amount involved exceeding 200 million.

On July 30, 2020, to 2021, defendants Wan Mouyuan, Chen Mouwen, and Huang Mouyuan engaged in illegal forex trading activities outside the regulated trading venues for profit. Among them, defendant Wan Mouyuan was responsible for contacting clients needing USD, and through Chen Mouwen, he contacted Huang Mouyuan to transfer the corresponding RMB or USDT (Virtual Money USD) purchased with RMB to the RMB account or USDT receiving Address provided by Huang Mouyuan. Huang Mouyuan used accounts from two Hong Kong companies he controlled to transfer USD online to the receiving company account provided by Chen Mouwen, and sent the USD remittance "receipt" (remittance voucher) to Chen Mouwen. After the transaction was finalized or after receiving the USD, the client would transfer the RMB used to purchase the USD to the bank account provided by Wan Mouyuan, or pay in RMB through settlement with Wan Mouyuan, ultimately completing the transaction. According to the accounting firm’s investigation, from November 2020 to March 30, 2021, Wan Mouyuan and Chen Mouwen engaged in illegal forex trading activities outside the regulated trading venues in the manner described above, collecting a total of 234.04 million RMB from clients for purchasing USD. This case was initially accepted by the People's Court of Muchuan County, Leshan City, Sichuan Province. The court believed that this case involved issues related to the nature of forex trading using virtual money as a medium, as there are differences in the understanding of the legality of virtual currency in different regions, leading to divergences in the identification of such behaviors in practice; at the same time, one of the defendants is a Hong Kong resident, and the defendants repeatedly used virtual coins as a means of payment, transferring between different currencies to seek profit. Considering that this case is a new type in the jurisdiction and has high social concern, it was reported for the Sichuan Province Leshan Intermediate People's Court to take jurisdiction. After hearing, on August 28, 2024, the Sichuan Province Leshan Intermediate People's Court made the judgment (2023) Chuan 11 Criminal First 24: Engaging in buying and selling forex outside the regulated trading venues or using the method of "forex—virtual currency—RMB" to achieve value conversion between RMB and USD by using virtual currency as a medium of exchange constitutes disguised forex trading, disrupting the order of the financial market, and their behavior constitutes the crime of illegal business operations. Defendant Wan Mouyuan was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 740,000 RMB. Wan Mouyuan was also involved in other crimes, and the sentence was decided to be executed as thirteen years and six months in prison, and fined 1,140,000 RMB. Defendants Huang Mouyuan and Chen Mouwen were sentenced to five years and six months, and two years and six months in prison respectively, and fined 710,000 RMB and 250,000 RMB. After the first instance judgment, the defendants accepted the verdict, the procuratorate did not appeal, and the judgment has already taken legal effect. (Hongxing News)