If Bitcoin is banned in China how come you can trade it on localbitcoins.com?

[jongameson]

because if you type in Beijing there are several sellers.. 

[bass1012dash]

It's not banned as far as I know. last I heard it was cautioned against by china's main bank... could be wrong there. but hey... best answer I can give with just what I remember.

[DooMAD]

China have only stopped Chinese banks and other companies from sending or receiving fiat currency to and from Exchanges.  People can still send money to each other in trade for BTC and other currencies legally.

[Sand]

Yeah, it wasn't banned. It's not like you can go to prison from owning them or something. Google some more

[hilariousandco]

And this is the power of FUD.

[oprahwindfury]

It was never banned. The Chinese government has just prevented exchanges from operating with bitcoin payouts or buys ins. Localbitcoins is NOT an exchange, it's a decentralized trading platform. You can't ban people from meeting and trading digital currency, how would that be even physically possible? Even if that was made illegal, I'm sure the Chinese wealthy looking to move their riches out of the country would find other trading site to obtain btc and move out of the country and then cash out.

[carolynwneal25]

never banned i think..in china just has many seller take profit with bitcoin

[hystericG]

As others have mentioned, Bitcoin was NEVER banned in China.

[Lethn]

It's the same bullshit that was tossed around when that blog post was made about the Thailand Central Bank, they haven't actually banned it outright, at most they've just restricted its' use in financial companies etc. individuals can still quite happily trade it as far as I'm aware but you have that usual problem where hysterical news organisations have taken the story and run with it as if it's real.