Chen Zhi, who owns 127,000 Bitcoins, has been deported back to China. What will happen next?

A private jet taking off from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, pierced through the night sky and finally landed within Chinese territory. On board, a once-dominant figure—Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group of Cambodia—was shackled, ending his brief and brilliant foreign millionaire career. This 38-year-old entrepreneur, once hailed as “Cambodia’s richest man,” has now become the central figure in a transnational criminal case involving assets exceeding one hundred billion dollars.

With his arrest and repatriation, a huge question mark hangs over the global cryptocurrency market and the international political stage: what fate awaits Chen Zhi himself? Who will ultimately own the massive Bitcoin assets seized by the U.S. government, totaling 127,271 coins and once valued at up to $15 billion? This is not only the end of a shocking criminal case but also the beginning of a geopolitical struggle between China and the U.S. over digital sovereignty and judicial jurisdiction.

The Fall of a Business Magnate

Chen Zhi’s story reads like a dramatic movie plot. He founded the Prince Group in Cambodia in 2015, starting in real estate, and rapidly expanded into banking, finance, hotels, airlines, and even technology. He was a skilled diplomat, serving as a senior advisor to Cambodia’s Prime Minister, and through frequent charitable donations, he cultivated an image of a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist in local media.

However, beneath this glamorous exterior, a vast and dark criminal empire was quietly operating. According to an indictment released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in October 2025, Chen Zhi and his Prince Group are accused of orchestrating a global “Pig Butchering” scam network. The group established at least ten heavily guarded closed zones in Cambodia and other locations, claiming to be tech centers, but in reality, they used human trafficking to imprison tens of thousands of “digital slaves” from across Asia.

These coerced employees, following meticulously crafted scripts, built emotional connections with victims worldwide on social media, luring them to invest in fake cryptocurrency trading platforms. Once victims invested large sums, the platforms would vanish instantly, leaving investors with nothing. U.S. authorities estimate that over 250 victims in the U.S. alone lost everything.

This criminal model, combining emotional manipulation, financial fraud, and forced labor, allowed Chen Zhi’s group to amass astonishing wealth. To launder these illicit gains, they bu