A U.K. High Court judge has allowed a lawsuit alleging the theft of 2,323 bitcoin—now worth roughly $172 million—to go forward, underscoring how Britain’s courts are adapting traditional property law to the world of crypto.
The case centers on U.K. resident Ping Fai Yuen’s claim that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the 24‑word recovery phrase for a Trezor hardware wallet and, in August 2023, moved 2,323 BTC without his permission. At the time of the alleged transfer the holdings were worth just under $60 million; at today’s price of just over $74,000 per bitcoin they are roughly $172 million. According to the High Court docket, the funds were routed through multiple transactions and now sit across 71 addresses not associated with exchanges; they have not moved since Dec. 21, 2023.
The court noted the wallet had been protected by a PIN, but anyone with the 24‑word seed phrase can recreate a hardware wallet and take the funds. After his daughter warned him Li might be trying to access the bitcoin, Yuen said he installed audio devices in the home. Upon discovering the transfers, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her; he later pleaded guilty in 2024 to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault. Officers searching Li’s home seized several hardware wallets and recovery seeds, but authorities took no further action pending new evidence.
Li had asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing Yuen’s primary claim—conversion, a traditional tort for wrongful taking of physical property—cannot apply to intangible assets like bitcoin. The judge agreed that conversion in its classic form does not neatly map onto digital assets, but ruled the lawsuit can proceed under alternative legal claims that, if proven, could allow Yuen to recover the cryptocurrency. The case will now head to trial.
Beyond the dramatic personal allegations, the dispute highlights a broader legal challenge: how existing property and tort doctrines should be interpreted when the “thing” at issue is a crypto private key or seed phrase rather than a tangible object. Courts in the U.K. and elsewhere are increasingly being asked to bridge that gap as high‑value crypto disputes land in civil dockets.
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