The Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou City, China, ruled that if a loaned cryptocurrency is not returned, compensation can be received based on the acquisition cost of that cryptocurrency. According to local media Guangzhou Daily, the court ruled that while cryptocurrency cannot be circulated as currency in China, it constitutes civil property with some characteristics of online assets. In this case, the plaintiff lent one unit of cryptocurrency in 2023 and, upon not receiving it back, requested the return of the cryptocurrency or payment of its equivalent in Yuan. The court ruled that the repayment agreement, which required repayment in Yuan reflecting the increase in cryptocurrency price, was effectively a cryptocurrency exchange and thus invalid. Furthermore, the court deemed it practically impossible to return the cryptocurrency itself. Instead, the court ordered the defendant to pay 199,600 Yuan (approximately 40.3 million KRW), the actual cost incurred by the plaintiff to acquire that one unit of cryptocurrency, as compensation for damages.
