Digital asset firm OKEx, which claims to be the world’s largest spot and futures trading platform for cryptos, has clarified that China has not actually banned or attempted to ban Bitcoin (BTC) again.
While sharing what they know, the OKEx team noted in a blog post that the “real facts” are that China issued a notice this past Friday from the Chinese State Council, which said the authorities aim to launch a crackdown on digital currency exchanges and mining operations, mainly because of the potential risks for local consumers and the society (in general) in mainland China. This report appears to be consistent with another, separate update from last week.
As mentioned by OKEx in their blog post, a few days before the State Council notice, the China Internet Finance Association had cautioned the public regarding the potential risks of investing in speculative virtual currencies.
The Association had reportedly listed specific issues with cryptos (as shared by OKEx) that they aim to address:
- Institutions “should understand the nature of Bitcoin and digital currencies.”
- Financial institutions “should not engage in crypto-related business transactions.”
- China does “not offer legal protection for crypto-related investment contracts.”
- Financial institutions “should abide by existing regulations regarding digital currencies.”
Because of the State Council notice, some cryptocurrency miners have reportedly made the decision to begin looking elsewhere for setting up mining operations “in the interim until the notice is enforced,” the digital assets firm revealed while adding that crypto exchanges like OKEx have been scaling back certain services and products “offered to Chinese nationals only.”
OKEx also noted that “any changes due to this notice are not impacting non-Chinese nationals, and will only affect users who reside in China and use the Chinese currency renminbi.”
While addressing cases of misleading (or misreporting) news, the OKEx team clarified:
“We have been seeing a lot of rumors and misreporting this week due to the notice and what is happening, for example, that China has ‘banned’ crypto entirely (like in previous years of rumors that China banned Bitcoin). This is not the case. At this time, China is going to be more strict [when dealing with] exchanges and mining operations, but people can still use and hold cryptocurrencies in general, including Chinese nationals.”
Lennix Lai, a Director at OKEx, has noted that China has “not outlawed the owning of digital currencies by its citizens.”
Lai also mentioned:
“People are allowed to mine bitcoins, they can transfer bitcoins to others and settle their trade in renminbi. There are a lot of bitcoin natives and believers in China.”
