China’s Supreme Individuals’s Procuratorate has revealed a set of suggestions that may reshape how the nation investigates and prosecutes cryptocurrency-related cash laundering, together with a proposal to deal with using mixers and privateness cash as proof of prison intent.
The article, launched within the official Procuratorial Day by day, was written by two prosecutors from Hunan Province’s Yuhu District and an affiliate legislation professor at Xiangtan College.
The authors argue that the decentralized, pseudonymous, and cross-border design of digital currencies has outpaced China’s authorized framework and created a three-part drawback: defining the offense, gathering proof, and recovering stolen belongings.
On the middle of the talk is a niche between statutes. China’s Anti-Cash Laundering Regulation has dropped restrictions on which predicate offenses qualify, however Article 191 of the Legal Regulation nonetheless limits cash laundering expenses to seven classes.
In consequence, most crypto circumstances fall below Article 312, which covers concealing prison proceeds, a cost the authors describe as a catch-all. They name for wider use of the cash laundering statute and a “one case, two checks” precept that may require investigators to search for laundering indicators in each main prison probe.
Burden shifts in China’s courts
Three proposals stand out. The primary, described as blockchain self-authentication, would deal with on-chain data from public block explorers as dependable when hash values match, and would preliminarily set up their integrity.
The second would shift the burden of proof: as soon as prosecutors submit a transaction-chain evaluation report, the protection would wish to disprove it.
The third would enable courts to presume laundering intent from conduct alone. Underneath that normal, using mixers or privateness cash, the sale of enormous holdings at off-market costs, or high-value transactions by nameless wallets with no clear supply would set up intent until a defendant supplied an affordable rebuttal.
The authors additionally handle proof assortment, noting that mixers, privateness cash, and decentralized exchanges enable multi-layered splitting and cross-chain transfers that conventional strategies wrestle to hint.
They suggest adaptive guidelines for digital information, tiered requirements of proof, and clearer authorization for technical measures comparable to real-time monitoring and site visitors evaluation, with limits to guard private info and cybersecurity.
Asset restoration presents an additional impediment. With crypto buying and selling banned in China, authorities maintain seized cash with out a authorized channel to liquidate them.
The paper recommends a nationwide platform to retailer, worth, and get rid of confiscated belongings by compliant channels, together with an knowledgeable committee that may set values utilizing on-chain information and worldwide change costs.
It additionally urges bilateral and multilateral agreements and a blockchain-based “judicial cooperation chain” to hint and freeze funds moved overseas.
The suggestions carry no authorized pressure, however they sign a attainable course for China’s courts. The proposals arrive as Chinese language-language laundering networks processed $16.15 billion in 2025, about 20% of the worldwide whole, in line with Chainalysis.
In 2024, Chinese language prosecutors introduced expenses in opposition to greater than 3,000 individuals in crypto-related laundering circumstances, a determine that underscores the dimensions of the problem.
