$6.7 billion in bitcoin scored in 'single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world'

One bitcoin could be a life-changing amount of money to someone: valued at around $113,000 a pop, give or take the whims of the market at any one time. And the market just might have something to react to with this story: a woman has been arrested by London's Met Police for stolen bitcoin valued at—gulp—$6.7 billion or thereabouts.

The woman, Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, also allegedly known as "the goddess of wealth" by some, plead guilty to two counts in Southwark Crown Court, related to the acquisition and possession of criminal property (via BBC News). The assets in question: 61,000 bitcoin.

61,000 x 113,000 = 6.893 billion dollars. The value has shifted a little since the Met made its calculations, but that's bitcoin for you. Six months ago a single bitcoin was worth less than $100,000. Six years ago it was around $3,000.

Qian is said to have received the bitcoin from large-scale fraud in China, with over 128,000 victims pouring their cash into Qian's investments. Qian then stored the stolen assets in bitcoin, which has had a pretty good year. Qian is then said to have moved to the UK and attempted to launder the assets by purchasing property with assistance from another, Jian Wen.

You might wonder why Qian moved the money from high-earning bitcoin into measly London property. Well, besides the never-ceasing London property boom, the Met had already tracked the movement of cryptocurrency wallet containing 150 bitcoin (around $16 million today) connected to Jian last year as a part of this same investigation. So, all these wallets might not be the best long-term storage for stolen goods, especially as recent events have shown investigators are getting ever-better at tracking down stolen funds.

Wen was sentenced to six years and eight months imprisonment for their part in the operation back in May, 2024. Qian is awaiting sentencing.

There have also been various thefts of wallets in recent months and years, such as a $1.5 billion bitcoin heist from Dubai-based crypto firm Bybit. So, even if you evade the law, will you evade other nefarious actors? Property is much harder to hack, you know, and Jian had property in both London and Dubai, according to a report from the Crown Prosecution Service earlier in the year.

"This is one of the largest money laundering cases in UK history", said Will Lyne, the Met's head of economic and cybercrime command.

“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organised criminals to disguise and transfer assets, so that fraudsters may enjoy the benefits of their criminal conduct," Robin Weyell, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the CPS, said.

The Met also worked with Chinese law enforcement in both Beijing and Tianjin throughout the investigation.

"Through a meticulous investigation and unprecedented cooperation with Chinese law enforcement, we were able to obtain compelling evidence of the criminal origins of the cryptoassets Qian attempted to launder in the UK."

If there's one thing that seems constant throughout most cryptocurrency heists, hacks, and seizures, it's that the numbers keep going up. A few years ago we'd be surprised by the theft of a few hundred million dollars worth of coins, but as the value of many cryptocurrencies has increased, so have the totals.

The Met is claiming this recent case to be the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world, though that depends on whether you go by value or number of coins. There was a larger seizure late last year, 120,000 bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex exchange. Those were seized by the US Department of Justice.

The then-deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco (yes, the now-Microsoft exec that Trump wants to get rid of), claimed it to be the largest in US history at the time. It was worth around $4.5 billion then. So, technically, the Met's seizure is bigger by value, though that 120,000 bitcoin haul would now be worth, er, a little over 13 billion dollars and counting. But who's counting, eh?

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