Bitcoin Forum

In an interesting turn of events, China's tone on BTC has "softened". Who was expecting this change in tone? Not me. Not after all the crack downs on exchanges or ICO bans and the works they are doing with their CBDC.

People's Bank of China deputy governor also said they will be looking to craft regulations to prevent speculations of BTC investments. They will most likely convene meetings with traditional companies that are interested.

How do you see this affect BTC and cryptocurrency in general?

Full story: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/china-calls-bitcoin-an-investment-alternative-marking-shift-in-tone.html

The fact that the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China called bitcoin an "alternative investment" is already some progress. However, these are only the words of one official, moreover, not of the highest rank. We need regulations from the highest legislative body in China, or at least its government, which would express a clear attitude towards cryptocurrency. Otherwise, tomorrow another official may say the opposite opinion. This was the case in Russia before, until they adopted a bill in the first reading that actually prohibits the circulation of cryptocurrency and its use as a means of payment.

It's not just the word of one man. He represents PBOC which kick started all the bans and crackdowns in 2017 right? This change in stance is kind of a go signal to whoever is responsible of crafting the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency investments.

One possible reason is to inject their CBDC into the economic world as means of crypto as well for that they need to accept bitcoin and regulate them instead of banning it and another positive thing from regulating the BTC can encourage more countries to follow the same so USD will lose its position from being world's trade currency of all time then bitcoin will become.

Not just with China, I am seeing many other countries especially India government also changing their view on bitcoin (cryptocurrencies) time to time is. If I remember exactly, by 2015 itself most European countries have agreed with bitcoin to accept it as one of the digital asset; in this way China is too late. Probably China might have concluded after their inability to control/regulate cryptocurrencies for their people which might have enforced them to be softened like this; not a surprise, most countries will be enforced in similar manner in coming years.

It worries me when China has a hard stance, but it worries me even more when they speak softly. Is there still a ban on electronic trading of crypto for citizens?

My interpretation is that they have realised that the country has a lot to gain from backing bitcoin in some form. Countries that intend to grow at a fast pace or are trying to reanimate their economies catching the fintech and alternative assets train should be taking this approach.

That voice is a voice of nation, so I believe that with that statement alone he will demoralized the consciousness of people trying to invest in cryptocurrencies, so it's obvious that with such statement it will trigger the people to slide back from crypto investments more like restrictions of cryptocurrencies in some other nations.

Whatever can be their intention but if they have neutral or positive stand on bitcoin means that will be a good thing for this community, right? Then I guess nothing is  hidden here to worry about. China is continuously working hard to fasten their economic growth and probably they might have found another opportunity in crypto space  which will be directly having good impact on their economy. I just foresee another good rally for bitcoins and altcoins together just because of China's this stand.

Depends on what they mean by both "btc not a currency per se (did the bank/govt really say that?) , and also the "prevention of speculating with btc"

Hope the speculation doesn't mean prediction/betting. You can predict or bet on what Bitcoin price will be in the future without  gambling on the price of Bitcoin and messing up the market for others. Safe bet could involve buying the significant dips of Bitcoin with what you can afford to risk and selling some of your investment at higher prices when you need some money for other important things

Another act of advertising ,China has been hard to Bitcoin eversince and what will be the reason for their government to suddenly change course towards this currencies?
i don't think that we must Trust this News just like that.
Not until it was finalized and existing then that will be the proper way to take this as truthful matter.

Demoralize or give some ray of hope? the fact they acknowledge that btc is an alternative investment is a good enough reason for people over ther to have some hope that one day the strictness surrounding btc in china will reduce a bit, rather than demoralizing the people's conciousness it will uplift their spirit to want to invest, this is suppose to be a positive news isn't it! perhaps they have started to see things about crypto differently.

The hypocrisy of the Chinese government officials is on another level. ;D
They might be saying something positive,while doing exactly the opposite.I don't trust what they are saying,I only observe their moves in regards to the cryptocurrency industry.
The forum is full with rumors,gossips and conspiracy theories about China attacking or already controlling the crypto industry via the crypto miners,that are located in Chinese provinces.So far,none of this seems to be true.
China will continue to be unpredictable...

Yeah those guys are definately confused, they seem to don't know which approach to apply regarding btc case, first they are against it, cracking down btc mining farms, banning crypto and not allowing citizens to participate, now they think it is good alternative investment, how they come about that conclusion! what made them change their earlier attitude towards btc! they are concfused.

Would you rather trust your " experience"
                      OR
Would you rather trust a country whose sole purpose is biased domination over everything!? Literally everything!!

What would their suggestions mean ? They want their digital Yuan to dominate the market, they have tried controlling bitcoins! Unfortunately failed. Now what they are doing is trying to control the people and their mentality.

1. The Government took over a lot of mining farms
2. Bitcoins was banned in China for a while but then resumed the trading because the Government and the people needed it!

What are they doing ?
- Nothing but manipulating to push people away from it to make it weak enough to attack.

Do not bother with such news.

Well, it took some time but it's a way lot progress considering what's been going on in China as regarding their regulations concerning bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.  I believe they are starting to see the light of bitcoin and will eventually come around.
I'm not surprised the deputy governor of the People's Bank of China still believes bitcoin is not a currency. I'd say his judgement is biased and he's only saying that because he doesn't want to believe bitcoin is a currency. This doesn't change the fact that bitcoin was created to be a currency and has always been even though most people don't use it as such.

China has been silently supporting miners for years, and they have Bitcoin mining plants in their Country. Years ago they didn't support Bitcoin at the G20 conference. Now they change their tone because they probably have large enough Bitcoin holdings.
Bitcoin is not a currency in China because the law here does not allow it but to say it is an asset is absolutely correct.

Eh, still in the same page IMO. If the PBOC deputy governor stated that it can be used an alternative asset BUT they will still seek the creation of regulations that will prevent BTC speculation, that changes nothing. Idk what he means by "alternative asset" but I'm sure that their overall stance on bitcoin still is the same, albeit stating these words. Their focus is their CBDC, and I don't think letting loose on bitcoin is something that will aid their goals in the long run.

The thing is imo, I do not see how this could positively affect or influence Bitcoin, China as we all know is a 'power hungry' country that's seeking economic dominance, Bitcoin and dex crypto is actually the opposite of what China wants cause they are decentralized and their government cannot control it, neither can they manipulate it to their economic favor. China are seeking 'world power' position, as they want to dominate the economic scene, their negative stance on Bitcoin unfortunately will remain the the same, they'll obviously be more concerned with CBDC's that they can control and influence in their favor if possible, countries like China I'm afraid would continually find Bitcoin 'offensive' unless there's a way the government can benefit from it economically.

That’s really nice and I am happy they are starting to have a change of mind on cryptocurrency. China is one of the biggest market there is for cryptocurrency, and it would be good if they are going to start cooperating. I believe that their government have seen that there is no way that they can bitcoin, because even if they do their citizens are still going to have access to it and are going to be making use of peer to peer, so they are still the ones that are losing. The only they can have a bit of a control over the market is when they are allow it, and that’s what they about to do this time around.

China usually has a strong stand towards currencies. The Yuan is still being controlled and doesn't trade freely. If China is trying to soften their opinion towards Bitcoin that is a good approach in my opinion. They noticed that there is no way around Bitcoins in the long run. Instead of fighting it, it's better to just try and regulate it. If you can't win the fight, then just join it. This might also be the first step towards the digital yuan and how you can buy it with BTCs.

Unless it comes directly from the mouth of Xi Jinping, it is hard to believe a single word that a Chinese official says. The amount of times that they backtrack on what they say the next day because they have angered someone higher up the foodchain is crazy. Same thing happened with that Doctor who announced the discovery of Covid, he was persecuted and eventually died after treating infected patients - the CCP just called him a liar until they couldn't cover it up any longer. The only reason that China is supporting cryptocurrency right now is because they can turn unproductive regions into mining facilities and are willing to burn the dirtiest fossil fuels for the pursuit of money. I think China makes up roughly 65% of bitcoin mining activity at present, so they are gaining a lot of money with the current high prices.

What is an "investment alternative"?  Bitcoin is either an investment or it's not, and this choice of words has me perplexed as to what exactly they mean.  And bitcoin is a currency, though IMO it's a crappy one (especially at times like this when fees are so goddamn high), so they got that wrong in addition to issuing a gobbledygook statement for a purpose that I can't quite figure out.

I guess this is supposed to be some positive news, but I don't read anything substantial in it.  We'll see what happens; anything is possible when you're talking about China.

China is a technically very developed country and accounts for a very large % of Bitcoin purchases. In addition, the biggest Bitcoin mining farms are in China. It's about time they've changed their attitude. Although, all this "investment alternative" stuff seems somewhat befogged.
Perhaps, after all these years the government finally realized the whole potential of cryptocurrencies, and now, considering that China is already involved with crypto they're willing to make an economical profit out of it.

China is going to introduce a digital Yuan (they're already testing it in live programs with citizens.  Because of this, it is very unlikely they'll ever be bitcoin-friendly.  They won't want anything to compete with the digital Yuan because success of the digital Yuan is part of a global strategy to break the US's hold over the world financial system.  All the rogue nations are likely to adopt the digital Yuan when it is available because it can't be blocked by US sanctions, which will serve as a double-edged victory for China- it boosts reliance on the Chinese economy and it weakens the US at the same time.

China saw an opportunity with bitcoin in the past, they just shrugged it off because it either is still valued lesser, or because of the news I saw 2 years ago where they are supposed to digitize the Yuan currency. Then again it just shows that with enough encouragement, a government repulsed by the idea of cryptocurrencies can be made to change mind when given the benefits and opportunities that it can bring to their country This will definitely expedite bitcoin's growth and ultimately, the global adoption we are looking for.

Actually he has made it obvious to them, he can't say everything because their is inner motive for he to portray such point and never he will say so again, is left for people that have the understanding to make use of their common sense towards cryptocurrency, now it's very clear that existence of btc their is under conditions which might regulate by their government, because government in China according to the discussion is already emphasising that is alternative investment...which really government have started to be against gradually.

Governments and central banks hope that citizens keep Bitcoin or anything valuable in a place within the country or under its authority.

If any service provides Bitcoin as derivative to customers like what PayPal offer where the user can buy and trade Bitcoin within a central network and they cannot withdraw it, then they will have no problem setting up a legislative system and imposing taxes on such transactions.

China will be one of the first countries to adopt such legislation.

This is not as unexpected as it may seem at first sight, we know that China will like more than anything to get the US dollar out of their supremacy and they are thinking that bitcoin could be a weapon they can use against the US.

The US is not happy about bitcoin either but they cannot ban it because China has not done so and they are afraid that if they do so then a lot of money is going to leave their economy and they will be left behind in a race that will most likely change the world.

The digitalisation of Yuan currency is not going to make China more than what it will be today because it is also going to be centralised, it won't be decentralised  like bitcoin. USD is like a decentralised currency and bitcoin standing in crypto space and Yuan as cryptocurrency won't be placed in that, it won't be in use by all.

Investment alternatives are exactly what they sound like- investments that are alternative to traditional investments. The stock market are real estate are deemed to be two examples of traditional investments.  Alternative investments are things like private equity, hedge funds, currencies, metals, art, and crypto.

Probably due to the introduction of the digital yuan.

They want to change the public opinion on digital assets in general. However, what they don't want is people adopting BTC as a form of digital currency.

Essentially, it's a compromise that they've reached. They're fine with people using BTC as a long term store of value so long as it doesn't directly compete with CBDCs - which is actually good news for BTC given that it can have a place coexisting with fiats.

Why not, China holds the power to run whole crypto currency space with their more than 50% of hashing power. They can just do miracles with this power and either put the mining operations at jeopardy or keep it going on with proper regulations what so ever. China is country of surprises, they can build the bio-weapon as well as they can go freaking advance with the technologies. For them bitcoin is not very lucid investment. It's just tip of iceberg and they would want more out of it for sure. With the current situation they will agree on the bitcoin's use for sure, in the corporate world to government usage so that it can be part of their taxation system.

Well they aren't wrong in my opinion because bitcoin is an in-between of both asset and currency so technically they are half right. If they plan to change the opinion, I am sure that they are going to be successful consider they own the news station and they have subjected their people to propaganda all these years.

The ban on cryptocurrency during the year 2017 was made for specific reason of fake volume by cryptocurrency exchanges. This got identified during the inspection and immediate measure of bans and closure of exchanges were done. After that things got regulated and were functioning without issues. Now they have come into the cryptospace understanding its need and thats the reason the tone has got softened.

It was not yet globally recognized as currency but it is an asset that we can use in trading or barter exchange. That is why countries like China see bitcoin as an alternative asset that they can invest in because it increases in value as time goes by. And they believe that in the future, the world will accept Bitcoin as payment and it will eventually circulate the market.

they banned ICOs because everyone else was doing it and they were too obvious a scam not to ban. but they haven't changed their tone towards bitcoin from what i can see. they still hate it a lot while loving any centralized altcoin they can control. in fact they even released a list of "best cryptocurrencies" and bitcoin wasn't even in it!

This will have zero impact on the cryptocurrency market in my opinion. Why? Because the Chinese government is very fickle when it comes to their opinion regarding cryptocurrencies. They embrace them sometimes and ban them sometimes.

It's like they are stuck in some sort of loop. We should focus on more important matters like Biden's tax plans.

I think this was long expected. The day Bitcoin was banned in China there was a buzz that they will come with their own Cryptocurrency which would be backed by central bank and their very own exchange. So I think this is no surprise. They will allow bitcoin as an investment in their own exchange which the government would control. But you won't be able to transfer Bitcoins from that wallet to any other wallet only within the wallet transactions would be allowed. China would make their own version of Bitcoin just like their own Facebook, own google, own twitter.

If bitcoin was used as  a asset in china, it may increase the flow of bitcoin in china.The population of china is on the top, it can't be open to cryptocurrency investment now. Previously the price only depend on the demand of bitcoin in the market. But now it's depending on the holding of cryptocurrency.

China can lay claim to being the mother of bitcoin adoption, from research I have made they have the highest number of miners and maybe Bitcoin users, I think what was left for China as regarding bitcoin was the government, recognition.

This is very much over due, and although I don't like some of the Chinese regulations or their way of system, but in terms of there government contribution to things they approve, I think they do it very well, so this will help Bitcoin in many more ways.

This is not true at all.  The digitization of the Yuan will make China a much more potent economy on the international stage and weaken the USD as a global reserve currency by creating a major competitor that other nations will want to use to get out from under the thumb of the US, especially when it can be used to evade US sanctions.  Frankly, nobody is going to care whether the currency is centralized or not.  Decentralization is not going to be the major pull.  If it was, you'd already see much wider bitcoin adoption.

This is a good change, hopefully it’s going to help in bringing a lot of positive changes to the cryptocurrency community. Once that they have done something like this, a lot of people in china will now start owning the cryptocurrency assets of their choice without the fear of being punished and the cryptocurrency businesses in that location will start flourishing, and that’s also a plus for the cryptocurrency community, and the miners won’t be disturbed in any way.

So, this is really a good change that we are seeing, although I did hear that even at a time they decided to ban bitcoin, they couldn’t ban miners in that location, rather they made it difficult for them to sell the coins they have mined.

But it is a dangerous compromise for them, the more people adopt bitcoin the more it will be used as a currency, after all taking into account the bitcoin that still has to be mined and that now a great deal of it is on strong hands that will most likely never let it go the amount of bitcoin available to the general population is too low.

This means that it is unlikely they will hold it long term as what it is the point of holding just a few hundred of dollars worth of bitcoin? You could just spend it and if that is the attitude the new adopters of bitcoin will have you can be sure it will be a threat to all of those centralized digital currencies.

I think it's still a long way off if BTC will be able to coexist with Fiat, even though both will use the same system, but Fiat can only be used as a transaction tool. different from bitcoin whose price is getting higher. From this I only see the reality that until now bitcoin is only effectively used as an investment tool

I think it is China's strategy on how they can slowly become the most powerful country in the world. As the digital yuan gets produced, they intend to change the public's opinion with regards to digital currencies. They might compromise a bit as people gets attracted much more into bitcoin than the digital currency they are producing but it is pretty obvious, they still have something hidden that they will produce or conduct in order for the digital yuan become the central currency for the country. They are not really mistaken about having bitcoin as an alternative asset since most of the people nowadays functions their bitcoin in that way.

America has already confirmed this like China wants to rule the entire world in next 10 to 15 years. So, we cannot simply move away from this like they are not having any hidden agenda. Only time could clear all these.

Yeah, if I remember correctly by 2014/2015 itself most European countries recognized bitcoin as digital asset. Now people are ready to have bitcoins as an asset and then it may be time for all other governments. If China's stand on bitcoin enlighten my government, at least I will have peace of mind with my bitcoin savings ;).

In this case, digital currency seems to be specifically for buying and selling tools, which until now has not been obtained from bitcoin, which tends to be used as an asset to get abundant profits. From this point of view, we can read China's smart steps in responding to the changing times

China has been silently supporting cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin for many years. China has crypto projects, one of the major ones we know of is NEO. They have the largest Bitcoin mining plants in the world.
Chinese people are banned from trading Bitcoin but are not forbidden to own them.

In any case, the digital yuan will occupy a privileged position in the Chinese economy, because it is one of the forms of the state fiat currency. I don't think that bitcoin and the digital yuan will be opposed to each other, because they have different fields of activity and different areas of application. Therefore, if bitcoin retains its rights as a digital asset in China, then it has a good future in the Chinese economy. A lot depends on the status of bitcoin in other states and I don't think China will ban bitcoin if it is allowed in other states.

It's a very fairy tale story type of deal what China is doing with crypto. I hate china as much as the next guy for all the things they are doing and how they are managing their nation, but when it comes to crypto they have turned 180 degrees so that is a good thing for us. This doesn't make them a good nation, but at the very least it would make them a crypto friendly one and we need something like that from every nation.

I remember clearly when there was talks about how they were planning on banning bitcoin all together, and loving some other coins like EOS which is down from where it was, and they were even against miners for a while. Looking at how they are right now, I can see that they are doing very well and they will probably keep doing very well for a long time as well. Crypto should be supported in every nation, there is no exceptions.

It is obvious that China is playing a very long term game against the US, they know they cannot break the power the US has built during decades in a short amount of time and they are using every tool they have at their disposal to achieve this.

And even if they see in bitcoin a potential threat to their own goals the fact that is independent from government control means thy are not as opposed to it as we may think at first glance, and when we understand the US dollar is the most dominant currency at the time this means the country that is at the most risk if bitcoin becomes a currency used in our everyday lives is the US and not China, which means they are not afraid to show some support while the US is terrified about the future prospects of bitcoin as a currency.

the point is to improve the exchange system, every country must make peace with the Bitcoin exchange. they don't need to interpret Bitcoin from a negative angle, because that's a gap that will later be used as one of the drawbacks of state integrity. be it China or America though.

Ah! Thats like a magic of bitcoin one more time spreading through the air. This is not the first government or central bank who changed their minds over the crypto currency through the past. We have seen same thing happening with the Nigeria, India, Brazil, Bangladesh and more other countries to name. China on the other hand holds most of the mining power. May be after the recent blackout China Bank realised the power that they are holding in their hands. They know very well now, they can stop the whole bitcoin economy or they could move it away with their mining operations. The income mostly getting driven into the China, thus more taxes and thus more power to banks. This could be the thought process behind all this. It's good that they are changing their minds, it will help flourish the crypto market more effectively.

Footing the country (China) government rules, regulation, and mode of operating the country China was a communist country so I don't think the way the country is been manage should surprise you or anyone else.

I don't know where you get the understanding that the Chinese government is crypto friendly cause the last time I checked they are not but their tone softened towards Bitcoin because they didn't expect the institutional investor will invest in Bitcoin or use Bitcoin to raise fund for their Bank of Construction or Agriculture last year I think.

Personally I think this has more to do with bitcoin being a threat to the hegemony to the US dollar than anything else, China understands very well that if they want to eventually take the position of the US then they need to displace the US dollar, but this is something difficult to do, they are thinking that even if bitcoin is not going to be enough to do the job it could be a useful tool against it.

This is why we have seen articles on the US trying to bring this issue to Biden so the US gets onboard the bitcoin ship as well, otherwise China will have a strategic advantage over them on a technology that will prove itself to be critical in the future.

Interesting point of view! This reminded me of "Where two are fighting, the third win", and I think that third is Bitcoin!
Every government has some hidden agenda. After all, we talk about governments, and frankly, I don't trust governments! What I think it's important is that people can hear and learn about Bitcoin and Blockchain freely! I guess with this law now, people from China will be able to exactly that! In the long run, more benefits are going to crypto! So while these big guys are fighting their wars, the crypto community will grow and grow... For me the outcome is inevitable!

The best these governments can do is to leave the cryptocurrency space alone, if they are adamant that they want to monitor the market all they need to do is to monitor the scams and make sure that anyone collecting money should be registered as a company in a legal way so that they will not run away with the money and will do the assigned work and be transparent and will return the money collected if they fail as a project.

If they can do that then the market will thrive on its own and create more business opportunities. I do not care about what China or any other country say about the cryptocurrency market, all they can do if they really want innovation is to leave the market alone.

Lol funny how they can't even decide anything even after years. Do they even know what crypto currencies are? I thought they were cracking down everything related to crypto currencies. Banning exchanges, destroying mining farms and making crypto currencies illegal. And then they went on making their own blockchain powered centralized currency. What happened to that? Funny to see them now with a different tone. I wonder if all these were just staged to see how the market reacts.

The Chinese just want the Digital Yuan to overshadow BTC as a currency or asset for trade.

It's hard to tell the real intention of China about this sudden change about their view on bitcoin. Maybe they have come to realized that they cannot shut down bitcoin and their digital Yuan cannot replace bitcoin's popularity.

Although this news is quite hard to believe thinking how China had disliked bitcoin before, this brings positive impact to crypto market which will open more chances for bitcoin to be accepted as a payment in most countries and even as a a good alternative asset or investment.

Oh well China always do this way, changing sentiments from time to time for their own benefits.

I see this coming, as they really have this stand and they really trying to make things tough to all early users and supporters of crypto
inside their jurisdiction.

They are now in a different settings, taking advantage of this system creating their own version of crypto.

Might see the benefits and big potential of this system, for sure they analyze it well and now they wanted to take advantage.

Also considerable, they are just observing what the market will react then see if how things will favor their side.

That will be the best for us and this market which is precisely why this is never going to happen, governments want control and taxes from every single industry around the world and they are not afraid to shut an industry down if they have to, however they cannot do this with this market because this market was specifically designed to resist them.

So they are in a difficult position, if they do nothing as you suggest then this market could grow to the point it replaces their fiat currencies, but if they do something and they fail then this will show how incompetent they are and how there is no way for them to stop this market despite their best efforts.