How perhaps the most controversial country in the world like China has banned BTC? Their flag is red communist and we often see news about Chinese workforce, the censorship, the state-run business, the lack of freedom to protest and rally, the constant pressure that is the Chinese society and most recently, the cameras everywhere watching your life everytime as you leave home (at least in the big urban areas). At the same time, China is the world's strongest economy, truly the biggest force in the capitalist world, strong investor and voracious land buyer, China is the world factory.
One of BTC biggest believers and investors are Chinese, there are many chinese enterpreuners with a very capitalist mindset (different from what you would expect from a communist country) and I believe the a good portion of cryptocurrency users in Asia are Chinese, so... Why? It has to do with elections, ideology and communists. The left-leaning voters have no trust in "foreigner things" and the current president in order to guarantee his position, he needs their loyal support and by banning BTC trades hes appealing to his Communist voting bloc.
So in the following years BTC will come back at full strenght in China, even though I dislike the chinese president he has done many good things for the international market and the capitalist world.
What do you guys think? Do you think maybe other leftist countries will follow Chinese example?
China banned crypto exchanges just because they have not figured out a way to legalize crypto currency yet. Many people in rural areas still don't know about bitcoin or they only know it as some kinf of multi level form or scam. Scammers can use this and take advantages. See this:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/vietnam-pincoin-ifan-icos-exposed-as-scams-that-allegedly-stole-660-millionBtw, banning crypto exchanges has nothing or very little to do with politics since China is a mono-party country. Its government has the absolute right to do every thing.
You are right to believe in China's influence on cypto currency as some of the biggest exchanges are China owned: Binance, Huobi, Okex or Kucoin...