A man was sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison for stealing 0.22 bitcoins. This is the first bitcoin theft case in Wuhan.

The Yangtze River Daily Media reported on February 10 (Reporter Liang Shuang, Correspondent Niu Tengzhou) Bitcoin is a virtual property with neither property attributes nor exchange value. Due to artificial speculation, the price fluctuates violently. In recent years, it has become a popular "investment" in some countries and has also attracted a group of people in China to devote themselves to it. On the 10th, a reporter from the Yangtze River Daily learned from the Hanyang Court that the judgment of the first Bitcoin theft case in Wuhan City has officially come into effect.
In 2016, Huang, who was engaged in POS machine sales, met the victim Liu, who lived in Hanyang, through a friend. Upon learning that the 70-year-old Liu was looking for investment and financial management, Huang introduced some platforms to Liu. In July 2017, Huang found Liu and persuaded him to participate in Bitcoin investment. Liu trusted Huang because he had made some profits on the investment platform introduced by Huang in the early stage. However, because he was not good at operating computers, Huang helped him register an email address and bought 0.22 bitcoins on a foreign trading platform. Through this channel, Huang mastered the account and password of Liu's Bitcoin wallet.
On December 21, 2017, Huang used the above account and password to steal 0.22 bitcoins from Liu's bitcoin wallet in an Internet cafe in Qiaokou District, Wuhan City, and transferred them to his own account. He then made a profit of RMB 24,000 after reselling them on the trading platform.
The next day, Liu found that his bitcoins were missing and hurried to find Huang. Huang admitted that he had transferred the bitcoins and promised to return 24,000 yuan to Liu. But by March 2018, Huang still hadn't returned the money, so Liu went to the police station to report the incident. On March 14, 2018, Huang was arrested by the police.
Huang later confessed that he was greedy because he had no money on hand due to the upcoming Chinese New Year. He used part of the stolen money to repay debts and for personal consumption, and invested the other part in a financial platform, but could not withdraw it because the financial platform collapsed. The case was tried by the Hanyang Court, and Huang was sentenced to one year and three months in prison and fined RMB 3,000. The stolen money was also ordered to be recovered and returned to the victim Liu.
It is understood that some previous cases of Bitcoin theft in China were convicted of the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. Why was this case convicted and sentenced for the crime of theft?
According to the presiding judge Deng Wei, the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data is to obtain data through intrusion or other technical means. Huang did not use intrusion or other technical means to obtain the account password. Instead, he took advantage of the convenience of helping the victim apply for an account to obtain the account password, and then secretly stole the bitcoins owned by the victim. His behavior met the constituent elements of the crime of theft, so he was convicted and punished for the crime of theft.