China’s Supreme Folks’s Procuratorate has revealed a set of suggestions that might 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 regulation 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 spot 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 costs to seven classes.
In consequence, most crypto circumstances fall underneath 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 might 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 want to disprove it.
The third would enable courts to presume laundering intent from conduct alone. Below that commonplace, using mixers or privateness cash, the sale of enormous holdings at off-market costs, or high-value transactions by way of nameless wallets with no clear supply would set up intent except a defendant provided an affordable rebuttal.
The authors additionally deal with proof assortment, noting that mixers, privateness cash, and decentralized exchanges enable multi-layered splitting and cross-chain transfers that conventional strategies battle to hint.
They suggest adaptive guidelines for digital knowledge, tiered requirements of proof, and clearer authorization for technical measures resembling real-time monitoring and visitors evaluation, with limits to guard private data 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 eliminate confiscated belongings by way of compliant channels, together with an professional committee that might set values utilizing on-chain knowledge 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 power, however they sign a doable path for China’s courts. The proposals arrive as Chinese language-language laundering networks processed $16.15 billion in 2025, about 20% of the worldwide complete, in keeping with Chainalysis.
In 2024, Chinese language prosecutors introduced costs towards greater than 3,000 folks in crypto-related laundering circumstances, a determine that underscores the dimensions of the problem.