A UK High Court judge allowed a claim over the alleged theft of more than 2,323 bitcoins to move forward last week, in a case that highlights how the country’s legal system is still adjusting to traditional ownership rights for cryptocurrency.
UK resident Ping Fai Yuen said in court papers last week that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the recovery phrase from his hardware wallet and transferred 2,323 bitcoins without his permission in August 2023, according to the High Court of England and Wales filing.
Bitcoin was worth just under $60 million at the time of the alleged theft 30 months ago, but is now worth around $172 million at the current price of just over $74,000.
The stolen cryptocurrencies were stored in a Trezor cold wallet secured by a PIN. But anyone with the wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase could recreate the wallet and move the funds, the court noted. These were then transferred through several transactions and are now distributed across 71 blockchain addresses not held by exchange platforms. According to the court, the funds have not been moved since December 21, 2023.
Yuen said he then installed audio recording devices in the house after his daughter warned him that Li was trying to take bitcoin. After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in 2024. Officers seized several hardware wallets and recovery sentences during a search of his home, although authorities subsequently took no further action pending new evidence.
Earlier, according to filings, the wife asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that since the husband’s primary claim was conversion, a legal term used in England traditionally when someone takes physical property, it could not apply to digital assets, such as bitcoin.
The judge ruled in favor of the wife, but ruled that the case could nevertheless proceed under other legal grounds that could allow the husband to recover the bitcoins if his allegations were proven. The case will now be taken to court, the judge said.
