China Curbs Gold ImportsThis would automatically shift demand to digital gold, aka Bitcoin. If that happens, you can expect China to take action restricting purchases of Bitcoin in some time. So a short and quick raise in bitcoin's price would be followed by a dump.
Don't bet on it. First of all, it will boost smuggling and black market activity. Bitcoin is a niche product, only few people are aware of it as an investment alternative. The direct impact of China news on Bitcoin prices is greatly exaggerated.
So I don't expect a rise in BTC price because of it. Even if the scenario you are pointing out becomes reality, restrictions for Bitcoin purchases would not succeed on a large scale, because you can't ban p2p trade.
China doesn't need to import BTC since most of the minted BTC is now mined inside of China. Unless China can track ongoing every BTC mined in China by requiring them to be sold and held on regulated exchanges that never allow users to have access to private keys (which would not be Bitcoin any more), then they have no hope of regulating it.
If China does basterdize BTC that way, then Bitcoin is dead. And we will just move on to another altcoin. In which case the mining farms in China will be useless door stops. Also China would be shooting its own technology sector in the foot. I just don't think China's think tanks are this stupid.
China is powerless to stop crypto-currency.
Besides the capital flight via BTC is so damn small so as to be insignificant. The entire market cap of Bitcoin is only a minuscule $12 billion. The daily volume on Bitcoin is $48 million and RNB forex volume is some $5 trillion annually or $14 billion daily. We need a 10 or 100X higher BTC price before we have to worry about it being significant to China's capital flight volumes.
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