But the companies themselves are largely staying quiet.Ī spokesperson for digital currency exchange Coinbase said Wednesday it does not “have anything to share at this time” about the crackdown in China. The Chinese ban carries penalties for international exchanges that do business with people inside China, and news reports indicate international crypto exchanges are trying to cut ties with Chinese clients in recent days. It says many of those who suddenly made millions when Bitcoin prices soared four years ago were in China.Ĭhinese miners and traders head to Singapore Chinese banks began to prohibit the use of digital currencies in 2013 and stepped up regulations after 2016.Ĭhina was the world’s biggest Bitcoin miner and supported the largest exchange by volume, according to the news website CryptoVantage. The notice, issued in tandem with nine other government agencies, including the Bureau of Public Security, declared all related business illegal and warned that cryptocurrency transactions originating outside China will also be treated as crimes.Įxplaining the ban, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday that cryptocurrencies have disrupted the controlled economy’s financial systems and contributed to crimes such as money laundering.Ĭryptocurrencies - digital commerce tools that aren’t linked to a centralized banking authority - first appeared in China around 2008. 24, the People’s Bank of China, Beijing’s monetary authority, released a statement saying cryptocurrencies lack the status of other monetary instruments. “The real impact we’ve probably seen though is in the miners, and most of those miners the process of shifting overseas or already completed moving overseas,” he said. “The exchanges have been pushing offshore anyways, and with the exchange business you need cloud infrastructure, you need developers, you need management to move things in the right direction, and so whether that is sitting in Taipei, San Francisco, Singapore or Shanghai, it doesn’t really matter - those businesses are very virtual,” said Zennon Kapron, Singapore-based founder the financial consulting firm Kapronasia. The shift highlights how virtual currencies can evade government regulation. Exchanges of the digital money and the numerous Chinese startups linked to the trade also are expected to rebase offshore after dropping domestic customers from their rosters. Since China’s government declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal last week and banned citizens from working for crypto-related companies, the price of bitcoin went up despite being shut out of one of its biggest markets.Įxperts say large-scale Chinese miners of cryptocurrency - the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum - will take their high-powered, electricity-guzzling servers offshore.
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