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The Hunan court ruled that the virtual currency "mining machine" transaction contract was invalid, and the relevant losses were borne by both parties

On November 19, the People's Court of Jiahe County, Hunan Province recently issued a judgment on a major mining machine transaction dispute case. The case shows that after the plaintiff Pan Mouxiang communicated with the defendant Lei Moucai to purchase the Bitcoin mining machine S19XP through WeChat in November 2021 and paid 2367.8 million USDT, the two parties disagreed on the nature of the contract and the settlement price. The plaintiff asked the defendant to return 6.27 million USDT price difference and continue to deliver 149 mining machines. The court ruled to reject all the plaintiffs' claims, mainly based on two reasons: first, according to the "Notice on Further Preventing and Handling the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Trading" by the central bank and other departments, virtual currencies such as USDT do not have the status of legal tender, and the relevant transactions are illegal financial activities; secondly, according to the "Notice on Regulating Virtual Currency" Mining "Activities" of the National Development and Reform Commission, the mining activities of mining machines have high energy consumption, high carbon emissions and low economic contribution, which is not in line with the national green development strategy. The court found that the trading contract was invalid due to violations of laws and regulations and public order and good customs, and the relevant losses were borne by both parties.