2019年10月24日，中共中央政治局就区块链技术发展现状和趋势进行第十八次集体学习，反映出国家层面对此问题的高度重视。近年来，随着基于区块链技术产生的比特币、以太币等“虚拟货币”受到热捧，不法分子趁机假借“区块链”“ICO”“购买虚拟货币算力”等各种名义从事违法犯罪活动。由于比特币等虚拟货币本身具有去中心化、匿名性、全球可兑换性、交易便捷性和不可撤销性等特点，因此容易被犯罪分子利用，实施相关犯罪。
涉虚拟货币犯罪主要具有以下几个特点：
一是隐蔽性。由于比特币等虚拟货币具有去中心化和匿名性特征，用户可以通过创建不同地址来保护隐私，且相关地址仅为代码，不需实名，使得行为监管和追踪变得困难；虚拟货币交易具有全球可兑换性和便捷性，不受时间、空间限制，自由度更高、隐蔽性更强；虚拟货币交易平台的监管还不完善，既包括火币、欧易等中心化交易平台，还出现了UNISWAP等去中心化交易平台，很难对可疑交易或违法犯罪行为进行有效识别。
二是高智能性，有别于传统犯罪，涉虚拟货币领域犯罪需要行为人具备较多的互联网金融知识和较强的计算机操作技能，如通过计算机病毒或恶意程序攻击他人计算机系统以窃取虚拟货币，又如假借虚拟货币平台进行非法集资等，均需要行为人对相关领域的知识有一定的了解，才能顺利实施犯罪行为。
三是易传播性，虚拟货币作为互联网金融领域新生事物，专业性较强、普通民众知之甚少，容易被犯罪分子以“区块链”“高科技”等噱头宣传利用，相关行为具有较强的迷惑性；加之虚拟货币本身具有的去中心化、跨国性特征，导致相关违法犯罪风险的传播与扩散将更为迅速、更为广泛，且更难管控。
四是较大危害性。在犯罪类型上，由于此类犯罪通常会涉及到非法吸收公众存款等集资类犯罪，也经常涉及网络诈骗犯罪，和百姓的财产息息相关，同时经常涉及到洗钱类犯罪，严重影响国家金融管理秩序。
打击涉虚拟货币犯罪主要面临以下几个难点：
一是法律适用面临诸多困惑。立法上的滞后性导致虚拟货币法律属性模糊，进而影响到刑法对涉虚拟货币领域犯罪行为的有效规制。目前对虚拟货币的规定仅限于人民银行等部委的几个规范性文件，缺乏较为明确的法律、法规和相关司法解释，给涉虚拟货币领域犯罪案件办理带来了一定的困难。
二是刑事管辖权归属存在争议。由于涉虚拟货币犯罪具有地域广、流动多发、受害者众多、去中心化、跨国性等特征，实践中存在犯罪行为实施地难以确认、犯罪行为结果地较为分散、犯罪嫌疑人跨国流动、多个国家或地区均享有管辖权等情况。在管辖权冲突时，既面临国内地域管辖协调困难、指定管辖层报程序繁琐等问题；国际管辖也可能面临管辖权原则不同、缺乏国际公约保障、准据法选择困难等问题。
三是侦查取证难度大。首先，涉虚拟货币领域犯罪的隐蔽性非常强。查证相关证据，分析、甄别、锁定、追踪犯罪嫌疑人的难度明显高于传统犯罪甚至是一般的网络犯罪；其次，涉虚拟货币领域犯罪具有高度专业性和技术性，办案人员不仅要熟知相关刑事案件的法律法规，还需要熟悉区块链、互联网金融的相关知识，甚至需要具备一定的技术能力，对侦查取证的要求非常高；再次，由于比特币等虚拟货币匿名性、交易便捷性、波动性大等特点，在防止犯罪嫌疑人转移犯罪所得、查证犯罪金额等方面存在难度。
因此，建议如下：
一、	完善涉虚拟货币领域相关立法。首先，应明确虚拟货币作为虚拟财产的法律属性。2013年《关于防范比特币风险的通知》和2017年《关于防范代币发行融资风险的公告》中明确了比特币是一种特定的虚拟商品，但《民法典》中对于虚拟货币是否属于“网络虚拟财产”并没有规定。第二，及时修改完善行政法、经济法相关法律法规，使其适应虚拟货币等互联网金融发展，比如，反洗钱法，人民银行法、证券法等等。第三，及时修订相关刑事立法，尽快制订并出台有关涉虚拟货币犯罪的司法解释。因涉虚拟货币犯罪涉及了非法吸收公众存款、集资诈骗、诈骗、传销、洗钱、帮助信息网络犯罪活动、非法经营、盗窃等，有必要出台专门司法解释，颁布实体法和程序法的适用规则。
二、	加强虚拟货币行政监管工作。首先应明确虚拟货币交易所的法律地位。通过对虚拟货币交易所的监管实现预防和管理风险，在反洗钱政策、监管主体、监管技术、经营模式方面积累经验。第二应明确虚拟货币的监管机构，形成以央行为主导，网信、工业和信息化部、证监等配合的金融监管体系。第三应大力发展监管科技水平。传统金融监管对虚拟货币很难发挥效力，应通过大数据、区块链、人工智能等领域的研究加强虚拟货币的涉犯罪检测。
三、	提高打击涉虚拟货币犯罪打击能力。首先应改进案件的地域管辖和指定管辖权，在坚持“以犯罪地为主，以居住地为辅”的原则基础上，在涉及犯罪地所在的办案单位中，选择办案能力强，人力物力充足的侦查机构来侦查，以“有利于查清犯罪事实、有利于诉讼”为目标。二是应不断提高办案队伍的专业性。可以招聘一些熟悉互联网和金融知识的专业人员，充实队伍；邀请科研单位或区块链企业专家开展专业培训，培养互联网金融+法律的复合人才；三是加强执法司法机关沟通衔接。完善行刑衔接机制，充分发挥金融监管机构在虚拟货币领域专业知识方面的优势；同时加强公检法三机关之间的协调配合，通过召开联席会议等形式共同对涉虚拟货币领域犯罪疑难问题进行研究、磋商，就相关标准达成共识。
四、	加大涉虚拟货币领域法治宣传教育。随着比特币等虚拟货币行情火爆，一些投资者盲目进入“虚拟货币”领域，缺乏足够的理性和敏感度，导致这一领域风险不断聚集。应帮助投资者了解虚拟货币等“互联网金融产品”的性质、品种、潜在风险，以典型案例、白皮书等方式适时发布涉虚拟货币安全风险提示，鼓励群众积极举报涉虚拟货币领域违法犯罪线索或提供相关证据，并在核实后予以适当奖励。

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On October 24, 2019, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee conducted the 18th collective learning on the development status and trend of blockchain technology, reflecting the high attention paid by the national level to this issue. In recent years, with the popularity of "virtual currencies" such as bitcoin and Ethereum based on blockchain technology, criminals have taken the opportunity to engage in illegal and criminal activities under the names of "blockchain", "ICO" and "purchasing virtual currency computing power". Because virtual currencies such as bitcoin have the characteristics of decentralization, anonymity, global convertibility, transaction convenience and irrevocability, they are easy to be used by criminals to commit related crimes.

Crimes involving virtual currency mainly have the following characteristics:

First, concealment. Because virtual currencies such as bitcoin have the characteristics of decentralization and anonymity, users can protect privacy by creating different addresses, and the relevant addresses are only codes without real names, which makes it difficult to monitor and track behavior; Virtual currency trading has global convertibility and convenience, is not limited by time and space, has higher freedom and stronger concealment; The supervision of virtual currency trading platform is not perfect, including centralized trading platforms such as Huo coin and Ouyi, and decentralized trading platforms such as uniswap, which is difficult to effectively identify suspicious transactions or illegal and criminal acts.

Second, it is a crime involving malicious money collection through computer or virtual programs, which involves more traditional people's criminal knowledge, such as stealing money through computer or virtual programs, Both require the perpetrator to have a certain understanding of the knowledge in relevant fields in order to successfully implement the criminal act.

Third, it is easy to spread. As a new thing in the field of Internet finance, virtual currency is highly professional and little known by ordinary people. It is easy to be publicized and used by criminals with gimmicks such as "blockchain" and "high technology", and the relevant behaviors are highly confusing; Coupled with the decentralized and transnational characteristics of virtual currency itself, the spread and diffusion of relevant illegal and criminal risks will be faster, more extensive and more difficult to control.

Fourth, greater harm. In terms of crime types, such crimes usually involve fund-raising crimes such as illegal absorption of public deposits, as well as cyber fraud, which are closely related to people's property. At the same time, they often involve money laundering crimes, which seriously affect the national financial management order.

Cracking down on crimes involving virtual currency mainly faces the following difficulties:

First, the application of law faces many puzzles. The lag of legislation leads to the fuzziness of the legal attribute of virtual currency, which affects the effective regulation of criminal acts involving virtual currency in criminal law. At present, the provisions on virtual currency are limited to several normative documents of ministries and commissions such as the people's Bank of China, and lack of clear laws, regulations and relevant judicial interpretations, which brings some difficulties to the handling of criminal cases involving virtual currency.

Second, the ownership of criminal jurisdiction is controversial. Because of the characteristics of virtual currency crime, such as wide area, frequent flow, many victims, decentralization and transnational nature, there are many problems in practice, such as the difficulty of confirming the implementation of criminal acts, the scattered results of criminal acts, the transnational movement of suspect, and the jurisdiction of many countries or regions. In the case of jurisdictional conflict, it is not only difficult to coordinate domestic regional jurisdiction, but also cumbersome in the reporting procedure of designated jurisdiction; International jurisdiction may also face problems such as different principles of jurisdiction, lack of guarantee of international conventions, difficulty in the selection of applicable law and so on.

Third, it is difficult to investigate and obtain evidence. First of all, the concealment of crimes involving virtual currency is very strong. Checking relevant evidence, analyzing, screening, locking and tracking suspect is much more difficult than traditional crime or even general network crime. Secondly, crimes involving virtual currency are highly professional and technical. Case handlers should not only be familiar with the laws and regulations of relevant criminal cases, but also be familiar with the relevant knowledge of blockchain and Internet finance, and even have certain technical ability. They have very high requirements for investigation and evidence collection; Thirdly, because of the characteristics of anonymity, convenience and volatility of bitcoin, virtual currency has difficulty in preventing the suspect from transferring the proceeds of crime and checking the amount of money.

Therefore, the recommendations are as follows:

I Improve relevant legislation in the field of virtual currency. First of all, we should clarify the legal attribute of virtual currency as virtual property. The notice on preventing the risk of bitcoin in 2013 and the notice on preventing the financing risk of token issuance in 2017 made it clear that bitcoin is a specific virtual commodity, but there is no provision in the civil code on whether virtual currency belongs to "network virtual property". Second, timely revise and improve relevant laws and regulations of administrative law and economic law to adapt them to the development of Internet finance such as virtual currency, such as anti money laundering law, people's Bank Law, securities law and so on. Third, timely revise relevant criminal legislation and formulate and issue judicial interpretations on crimes involving virtual currency as soon as possible. Because the crimes involving virtual currency involve illegal absorption of public deposits, fund-raising fraud, fraud, MLM, money laundering, helping information network criminal activities, illegal business, theft, etc., it is necessary to issue special judicial interpretations and promulgate the applicable rules of substantive law and procedural law.

II Strengthen the administrative supervision of virtual currency. Firstly, the legal status of virtual currency exchange should be clarified. Through the supervision of virtual currency exchange, we can prevent and manage risks, and accumulate experience in anti money laundering policy, supervision subject, supervision technology and business model. Second, we should clarify the regulatory authority of virtual currency and form a financial regulatory system dominated by the behavior of the central government and coordinated by the Ministry of Internet information technology, industry and information technology and CSRC. Third, we should vigorously develop the scientific and technological level of supervision. It is difficult for traditional financial supervision to play an effective role in virtual currency. We should strengthen the crime related detection of virtual currency through the research in the fields of big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and so on.

III Improve the ability to crack down on crimes involving virtual currency. First of all, we should improve the regional jurisdiction and designated jurisdiction of the case. On the basis of adhering to the principle of "giving priority to the place of crime and supplemented by the place of residence", among the case handling units involved in the place of crime, we should choose the investigation institutions with strong case handling ability and sufficient human and material resources to investigate, with the goal of "being conducive to the investigation of criminal facts and litigation". Second, we should constantly improve the professionalism of the case handling team. Some professionals familiar with Internet and financial knowledge can be recruited to enrich the team; Invite experts from scientific research institutions or blockchain enterprises to carry out professional training and cultivate compound talents of Internet Finance + law; Third, strengthen the communication and connection between law enforcement and judicial organs. Improve the execution connection mechanism and give full play to the advantages of financial regulators in the field of virtual currency expertise; At the same time, strengthen the coordination and cooperation among the three organs of public security, procuratorial and judicial organs, and jointly study and negotiate the difficult problems related to crimes in the field of virtual currency through holding joint meetings, so as to reach a consensus on relevant standards.

IV Increase publicity and education on the rule of law in the field of virtual currency. With the popularity of bitcoin and other virtual currencies, some investors blindly enter the field of "virtual currency" and lack sufficient rationality and sensitivity, resulting in the continuous accumulation of risks in this field. Investors should be helped to understand the nature, varieties and potential risks of "Internet financial products" such as virtual currency, timely release tips on security risks related to virtual currency in the form of typical cases and white papers, encourage people to actively report clues of violations and crimes related to virtual currency or provide relevant evidence, and give appropriate rewards after verification.