According to Jingchu Net, the Qingshan police, under the guidance and support of relevant departments of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau, successfully dismantled a criminal gang that used USTD virtual currency to help an overseas fraud group launder money. This was achieved through the tracking of a recently reported electric fraud case, which led them through Wuhan, Changsha, Nanchang, and Xiangxi. Six suspects involved in the case were arrested, with the total amount involved preliminarily identified as over 6 million yuan, and 23 Apple phones along with some high-end liquor were recovered.

ChainCatcher news, according to China National Radio, the Wuchang District Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau has successfully dismantled a gang that used virtual currency for money laundering through the collaboration of three centers: the "Intelligence, Guidance, and Action" Integrated Center, the Law Enforcement Case Management Center, and the Synthetic Operations Center. Seven arrest teams simultaneously conducted operations in provinces and cities such as Deyang in Sichuan, Changchun in Jilin, and Dongguan in Guangdong, resulting in the criminal detention of 27 individuals. The funds flowing through the accounts controlled by this gang reached 1 billion yuan.Investigations revealed that since April of this year, the suspect, referred to as "Certain," contacted his "superior" through the "Airplane" software to accept tasks, organizing gang members to use proceeds from telecom fraud to purchase digital virtual currency online, which was then transferred to the superior's account, thus helping the telecom fraud gang launder money and earning commissions in the process. Preliminary statistics indicate that this money laundering gang was involved in funds amounting to as much as 1 billion yuan. The case is currently under further investigation.

ChainCatcher news, the People's Court of Wuchang District, Wuhan City has concluded a case involving a contract dispute related to virtual currency "mining". The plaintiff, Zhou, signed a "Storage Server Purchase Contract" with the defendant, a technology company, on July 7, 2021. Both parties agreed that Zhou would purchase an IPFS storage server for 179,800 yuan. The IPFS storage server was to be hosted in a data center and managed by the technology company, which guaranteed Zhou that the provided IPFS storage server could offer services on the IPFS network and earn Filecoin rewards, could undergo hardware iteration and upgrades based on network demand, and promised that the amount of coins produced would not be lower than the market average (investment return rate); otherwise, the technology company would make up the difference.After the contract was signed, the technology company managed the storage server purchased by Zhou as agreed. Zhou was able to learn about the daily coin production and pledge release status of the storage server through an application software developed by the technology company. Later, Zhou realized that the virtual currency generated by the storage server was explicitly prohibited by the state, thus bringing the case to court, requesting confirmation of the contract's invalidity, the return of all contract funds, and payment of interest on the funds occupied.After hearing the case, the court held that although the "Storage Server Purchase Contract" signed by both parties was nominally a sales contract for storage servers, its substantive purpose was to purchase computing power storage servers for obtaining virtual currency Filecoin tokens. Combined with the agreement that the purchased storage servers would be hosted in the technology company's data center, it can be seen that the transaction involved in the contract was essentially a "mining" activity using specialized computer equipment to produce virtual currency. Such "mining" activities consume a large amount of energy and produce significant carbon emissions, which is detrimental to the optimization of China's industrial structure and energy conservation and emission reduction, and is not conducive to achieving China's goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Moreover, the production and trading of virtual currency involve multiple risks such as false asset risks, operational failure risks, and investment speculation risks, which harm the public interest. The transaction under the contract violates the principles of green development, harms the public interest, and does not comply with the relevant administrative regulations and regulatory requirements for industrial structure adjustment, thus the contract should be deemed invalid.Both parties bear fault for the invalidity of the contract and should assume civil liability commensurate with their fault. Considering the degree of fault of both parties and the technology company's actual maintenance and use of the storage equipment, the court determined that the technology company should return 120,000 yuan of the contract amount to Zhou. Additionally, since Zhou had fault regarding the contract's invalidity and there was no agreement between the parties on interest for the occupied funds, the court did not support Zhou's claim for interest on the occupied funds. After the judgment takes effect, the parties voluntarily fulfill the legal obligations determined by the effective judgment.

ChainCatcher news, the Wuhan Municipal People's Government has officially released the "Notice on Issuing the Implementation Plan for Promoting the Innovative Development of the Metaverse Industry in Wuhan (2022-2025)." The implementation plan mentions the innovative development of the metaverse industry, aiming to build more than 2 metaverse industry bases and more than 3 key metaverse platforms at a high level by 2025, focusing on key industry sectors to create more than 50 typical metaverse application scenarios and projects, cultivate and introduce more than 200 metaverse innovation enterprises, and establish a pilot area and core area for the innovative development of the metaverse in China with coordinated development of innovation chains, industrial chains, and value chains.The key tasks of the plan focus on strengthening metaverse technology innovation, encouraging metaverse content creation, accelerating the cultivation of metaverse products, and promoting metaverse industry applications. It emphasizes organizational guarantees and policy support, while strengthening data management alongside focusing on carrier construction and improving infrastructure.Compared to the "Implementation Plan for the Innovative Development of the Metaverse Industry in Wuhan (2022-2024) (Draft for Comments)" publicly solicited by Wuhan in August 2022, the officially published plan has undergone significant modifications in content. The content related to NFTs, which attracted some public attention in the draft for comments, has been removed from the official plan. (source link)

According to Chain Catcher news, the information disclosed by the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology shows that recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially replied to the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, supporting the city of Wuhan in creating a national blockchain development pilot zone. Currently, five cities including Suzhou, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, and Kunming have been approved to build national blockchain development pilot zones. (Source link)

According to Chain Catcher news, the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has officially responded to the Hubei Provincial Economic and Information Technology Department, supporting Wuhan in creating a national blockchain development pilot zone. Currently, Wuhan has gathered 143 blockchain enterprises, and the next step is to build it into a blockchain city with national influence.It is reported that the "Spark · Chain Network" Wuhan super node, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) Wuhan urban backbone network, and the Wuhan "City Brain" blockchain central platform are accelerating construction to provide industry users with basic identification service capabilities and cross-chain interoperability capabilities. At the same time, multiple units in Wuhan are deploying and launching blockchain projects to promote application demonstrations. In addition, Hubei Chutian Cloud's "Churong Chain" supply chain finance platform project was selected as the 2022 annual blockchain application scenario leaderboard project, and several enterprises are proposed to be recommended as the first batch of blockchain cultivation enterprises in the city after preliminary review by various districts. (source link)