Recently, a legal case has been circulating in the crypto community, involving a judicial ruling on personal virtual currency investments. The core message is: as long as individual investors' trading activities do not cross specific red lines, they are generally not considered illegal operations under the law. This is a reassuring signal for retail investors who have been exploring in the gray areas for a long time.

So, what exactly counts as safe? The ruling provides several clear criteria.

**The first standard is non-commercial nature.** If you are using your spare funds to buy and sell virtual assets, as long as you are not engaging in organized or industrial-scale commercial activities, it is considered personal investment rather than business operation. This is easy to understand—playing for yourself is different from running a company.

**The second standard involves fund settlement.** If you are not involved in large-scale fiat and virtual currency exchange and payment services—meaning you are not providing settlement services similar to an exchange—then it does not constitute a violation. Simply put, you are an investor, not an intermediary.

**The third and most basic standard: no involvement in other crimes.** Fraud, pyramid schemes, money laundering, illegal fundraising—any connection to these issues is a serious problem and has nothing to do with the legality of virtual assets.

This ruling actually reflects a shift in attitude—the judicial system is beginning to more precisely distinguish between personal investment activities and illegal financial operations. For compliant investors, this is akin to the judiciary drawing a relatively clear line.