China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the country’s highest prosecution authority, just told its prosecutors to stop playing defense on crypto crime. New recommendations released on July 12 call for proactive investigation of cryptocurrency-related money laundering, complete with updated evidentiary standards that could fundamentally change how cases are built and prosecuted.

The proposals, articulated by Hunan Province prosecutors and a law professor in the official Procuratorate Daily, introduce a straightforward but aggressive principle: if someone uses a mixer, transacts with privacy coins, or sells crypto assets at non-market prices, that alone may constitute sufficient evidence of criminal intent. In…