China’s Supreme People’s Court said this week it will begin studying adjudication rules for cases involving crypto assets and artificial intelligence — a move that signals the judiciary is preparing for a wave of disputes even as the country’s blanket ban on crypto trading remains firmly in place. The announcement, reported on May 27, 2026, does not signal any softening of the ban, but it acknowledges that courts are already seeing cases where crypto is a factor, whether in cross-border fraud, mining contract disputes, or money laundering charges.
What the court is planning
According to the court’s work plan for the year, judges will examine how to handle legal questions around crypto ownership, smart contract liability, and AI-generated content. The move is procedural: China has no crypto-friendly laws, but courts still need consistent rules when crypto appears in civil or criminal proceedings. Right now, different local courts have reached different conclusions on similar facts, creating legal uncertainty for anyone caught in a case.
The ban is still the ban
The People’s Bank of China and other regulators have not altered the 2021 prohibition on crypto trading, mining, and related services. The new study does not touch that. Rather, it aims to give judges a framework for applying existing laws — contract law, anti-money laundering rules, property rights — to disputes that involve digital assets. For example, a contract to provide mining rig hosting might be void under the ban, but a court still needs to decide whether the hosting fees must be returned.
AI cases get attention too
The court also listed AI-related disputes as a priority. This covers issues like copyright in AI-generated works, liability when an AI system causes harm, and data rights. China has been racing to regulate AI — the Cyberspace Administration of China has already issued draft rules — but the judiciary is bracing for lawsuits that test those rules in practice. The two topics, crypto and AI, are grouped in the same study program, perhaps because both are tech-heavy, fast-evolving areas where Chinese law is still catching up.
The timing isn’t accidental. Chinese courts have reported a steady uptick in crypto-adjacent litigation, especially from 2024 onward, as overseas exchanges collapsed or as cross-border crypto scams targeted mainland users. Without clear adjudication standards, judges have been forced to improvise, leading to inconsistent verdicts and appeals. The Supreme People’s Court’s study is an attempt to standardize those decisions before the caseload grows further. No timeline has been given for when the new guidelines might be published.
