iDEGEN’s pre-market auction surpasses 550m tokens as BTC stays around $100k
Key takeaways Bitcoin continues to trade around $100k after hitting a new all-time high of $103k a few days ago. iDEGEN’s pre-market auction has surpassed 550 million tokens, raising over $3 million. BTC stays around $100k Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, hit a new all-time high of $103,900 a few days ago…
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Key takeaways Bitcoin continues to trade around $100k after hitting a new all-time high of $103k a few days ago. iDEGEN’s pre-market auction has surpassed 550 million tokens, raising over $3 million. BTC stays around $100k Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, hit a new all-time high of $103,900 a few days ago… Read More
Bitcoin opened the week by rallying straight into a key resistance level. If it holds, BTC and altcoins could embark on the next leg of the crypto bull market…
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Bitcoin opened the week by rallying straight into a key resistance level. If it holds, BTC and altcoins could embark on the next leg of the crypto bull market… Read More
Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Man accuses wife of using CCTV cameras to steal $172 million bitcoin from his hardware wallet The alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin has triggered a High Court dispute testing how English property law applies to digital assets. By Olivier Acuna| Edited
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Man accuses wife of using CCTV cameras to steal $172 million bitcoin from his hardware wallet
The alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin has triggered a High Court dispute testing how English property law applies to digital assets.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Nikhilesh De, Aoyon Ashraf
Mar 16, 2026, 9:57 p.m.
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Bizarre case of spouses secretly recording each other, one to steal bitcoin, the other to prove the theft took place, lands in a U.K. court. (Credit: Mahosadha Ong-Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)
What to know:
A U.K. High Court judge has allowed a lawsuit over the alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin, now worth about $172 million, to proceed to trial.
The husband, Ping Fai Yuen, claims his estranged wife secretly obtained his hardware wallet recovery phrase via home CCTV and transferred the bitcoin without his permission in 2023.
While the judge rejected his primary claim of conversion on the grounds that it traditionally applies only to physical property, the case will continue under alternative legal claims that could still enable recovery of the bitcoin.
A U.K. High Court judge allowed a lawsuit over the alleged theft of more than 2,323 bitcoin to move forward last week, in a case that highlights how the country’s legal system is still adapting traditional property law to cryptocurrency.
U.K. resident Ping Fai Yuen claimed in court filings in last week that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the recovery phrase to his hardware wallet and transferred 2,323 bitcoin BTC$67,751.32 without his permission in August 2023, according to the docket in the High Court of England and Wales.
The bitcoin was worth just under $60 million at the time of the alleged theft 30 months ago, but is now worth roughly $172 million at the current price of just over $74,000.
The stolen crypto was stored in a Trezor cold wallet secured by a PIN. But anyone with the wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase could recreate the wallet and move the funds, the court noted. It was then transferred through several transactions and now sits across 71 blockchain addresses not held at exchanges. The funds have not moved since Dec. 21, 2023, according to the court.
Yuen said he later installed audio recording devices in the home after his daughter warned him Li was trying to take the bitcoin. After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in 2024. Officers seized several hardware wallets and recovery seeds during a search of her home, though authorities later took no further action pending new evidence.
Earlier, according to the filings, the wife asked the court to throw out the case, arguing that because the husband’s main claim was conversion, which in England is a legal term traditionally used when someone takes physical property, it could not apply to digital assets, such as bitcoin.
The judged agreed with the wife, but ruled the case can still proceed under different legal claims that could allow the husband to recover the bitcoin if his allegations are proven. The case will now proceed to trial, the judge said.
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Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. bought nearly $1.6 billion worth of Bitcoin—the company’s largest purchase since January—leaning more heavily on a security promising investors an 11.5% annual payout backed by the same cryptocurrency. Recommended Video The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, bought 22,337 Bitcoin between March 9 and March 15, according to a regulatory filing Monday.
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Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. bought nearly $1.6 billion worth of Bitcoin—the company’s largest purchase since January—leaning more heavily on a security promising investors an 11.5% annual payout backed by the same cryptocurrency.
Recommended Video
The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, bought 22,337 Bitcoin between March 9 and March 15, according to a regulatory filing Monday. Roughly $400 million of the purchase was funded through sales of common stock. The remaining $1.2 billion came from at-the-market sales of its “Stretch” perpetual preferred shares. The dividend-paying securities—similar to bonds that never mature—promise investors a steady yield funded ultimately by Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings.
Last week marked Strategy’s largest sale of Stretch since the July initial public offering of the issue. It was also the first time in weeks the firm relied mainly on Stretch to fund its purchases. During that period, Strategy has been marketing the securities as a way for investors and corporations to gain exposure to Bitcoin without taking on the cryptocurrency’s trademark volatility.
Strategy has built a layered funding machine: It issues debt, preferred stock, and equity—all to buy Bitcoin. Each layer promises investors a different mix of risk and reward, but every layer depends on the same thing: the price of Bitcoin going up.
On Wednesday, Strategy announced an unlikely taker for its perpetual preferred shares: another company whose balance sheet hinges on Bitcoin’s price.Bitcoin treasury company Strive Inc.—co-founded by former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—announced that it allocated $50 million, or more than one-third of its corporate treasury, to the securities.
Strive, which owns about 13,300 Bitcoin, is already heavily exposed to the token’s price swings. It’s turning to Stretch to earn a double-digit yield on capital set aside to meet its own preferred dividend obligations.
“Instead of holding idle cash earning low yields in money market funds, we believe it makes sense to allocate a portion of those reserves to in
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