China’s Top Court to Draft Rules for Crypto, AI Cases

The Supreme People’s Court announced it will study adjudication rules for cases involving virtual currency, artificial intelligence, data property rights and cross-border finance to provide clearer guidance for judges handling digital-economy disputes.

The court plans to research how judges should address new case types and to draft judicial interpretations on civil compensation for insider trading and market manipulation. The review will also cover judicial protection for AI-related disputes and questions of data ownership, data transactions and AI-generated content.

Liu Guixiang, a member of the court’s Judicial Committee, told a press conference: “We will conduct in-depth research on the adjudication rules for new cases such as virtual currencies and cross-border finance, formulate judicial interpretations on civil compensation involving insider trading and market manipulation as soon as possible.”

The court intends to create internal judicial standards to help lower courts decide liability and remedies in lawsuits tied to cryptocurrencies and AI-related intellectual property. Officials noted clearer rules could improve consistency as the number and complexity of such cases rise.

The announcement follows the arrest in Cambodia and extradition to China of Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Group, who faces charges linked to alleged “pig butchering” scam operations. U.S. authorities seized about $15 billion in Bitcoin in October 2025 that they linked to the suspected operations.

Mainland China maintains broad restrictions on private cryptocurrency activity. The People’s Bank of China barred financial institutions from offering Bitcoin-related services in December 2013 and said Bitcoin is not a recognized currency. In September 2021, Chinese regulators issued a ban on all crypto trading, mining and activities tied to initial coin offerings. In February, the central bank prohibited issuance of unauthorized offshore yuan-pegged stablecoins and unapproved issuance of tokenized real-world assets.

At the same time, authorities have advanced the state-backed digital yuan. Regulators approved commercial banks to share interest with clients holding the central bank digital currency and have moved to integrate the digital yuan into mainstream payment and savings services.

The Supreme People’s Court did not provide a timetable for finishing its research or issuing the judicial interpretations.