BlockBeats News, August 6th. An employee of a company in Pingshan District, Shenzhen, stole the company's core R&D data due to online loan debt. The employee then disguised as an overseas hacker and sent a ransom email to the company, demanding 0.88 BTC, 0.8 BTC, and 90,000 USDT as "ransom."

According to the Procuratorial Daily, the suspect, Jia, exploited a loophole in the company's management to download a large amount of R&D data from the company's server and copied the files to a personal mobile phone. He then created the illusion of a "hacker intrusion" through overseas email and other channels, exerting pressure on the company, claiming that leaking the data would cause losses.

As the company did not pay the ransom and reported to the police, Jia was ultimately sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison for attempted extortion and fined 10,000 yuan. During the trial, the procuratorial organ determined that although Bitcoin and Tether are not legal tender, they are virtual assets with financial value. The value of the involved virtual currency was over 630,000 yuan, which could be used as a basis for determining the criminal amount.