CHINA Banning bitcoin: PBOC Says All Crypto-Related Transactions Are Illegal

[Sithara007]

China has recently begun to get carried away with excessive zeal by the state's interference in the issues of economic functioning, and the prohibitions about cryptocurrencies quite fit into this paradigm. It is quite strange to hear about a country with one billion with a third of the population and the second largest economy in the world, which is so much afraid of the destructive influence of cryptocurrencies that it practically excludes its part of the population from this process. I think that these measures, as well as restrictions on listing on foreign exchanges for its companies, indicate that China is trying to isolate its economy from the world economy a little, which in the future may be a big mistake, despite all the self-sufficiency of the Chinese economy.

If you understand how manipulated the Chinese economy is, you will easily find out the reasons for this fear from the Chinese regime. The Chinese economy is like an inflated bubble, which can burst even at the slightest trigger. Almost every sector is manipulated, including stock market and real estate. Ordinary citizens have no other choice, but to pump their savings in to these assets. They don't have any other alternative available. Cryptocurrency represents an "alternative" and that is why the regime is so hostile towards it.

[vickyes]

In a centralized country like China, today's rich may become tomorrow's prisoners. There is no free country. Bitcoin will not have a good future.

[sirminesalot]

In a centralized country like China, today's rich may become tomorrow's prisoners. There is no free country. Bitcoin will not have a good future.

You're right, that's why china is a very big country because they have to make sure everything their people do has advantages to their country which is very nice for a country but it's very bad for the humanity freedom.
Although they could owning bitcoin without their government permission, but disallowance to crypto will bring bad impact to if all countries doing the same and make cryptocurrency will less valuable in the future.
Some people said it's just a FUD but as long we know, china has their own digital currency e-yuan and maybe they make sure their people are investing on thir own currency instead of cryptocurrency

[romero121]

~Snip
And to those saying too bad, so sad to China and this law: just wait until your country passes a similar law.  All it would take is the political will to do so and the stroke of a pen.  Plus this is a big blow to bitcoin; China isn't exactly a small country, and if their citizens can't use crypto that eliminates a lot of bitcoin users.

I believe that China's ban on mining, ICO, and crypto trading has made demand and trading volume and market cap decline. China is known as a country that is a bit stricter in law enforcement, so I don't think many people would dare to break the law if the prohibition law was enforced. What makes me wonder is why and why they should do it when they are one of the countries that has good technology in all sectors. They seem too paranoid and think bitcoin and traded altcoin can destabilize their country's economy. But I can assure you of one thing, they have a hidden desire with this ban and may not have been revealed.

China has recently begun to get carried away with excessive zeal by the state's interference in the issues of economic functioning, and the prohibitions about cryptocurrencies quite fit into this paradigm. It is quite strange to hear about a country with one billion with a third of the population and the second largest economy in the world, which is so much afraid of the destructive influence of cryptocurrencies that it practically excludes its part of the population from this process. I think that these measures, as well as restrictions on listing on foreign exchanges for its companies, indicate that China is trying to isolate its economy from the world economy a little, which in the future may be a big mistake, despite all the self-sufficiency of the Chinese economy.

Myself too have similar opinion about China's plan of getting isolated from the world economy. Already there is big war going on between USA and China and now this is coming to the light through different forms of attack. In yesterday's UN committee meeting more warnings were made against China and Pakistan for supporting terrorism.

Whenever PBOC makes a decision against cryptocurrency usage, there is price pumping after some crash. Now once again PBOC have made some decisions. Hope to see a price pumping soon.

[lovemycar]

old news yet still affects the market even when china couldn't control crypto. 

don't you think the chinese had enjoyed this banning of cryptocurrency all the time, it makes them look very important to the industry when they could make users panic sell. such a bit loss from the cap every time they do this.

The actions of the Chinese government will definitely affect the fluctuation of market prices. The number of users in China is really amazing. For example, OTC merchants must be moving bricks yesterday. Sometimes I wonder if they have used the panic news to buy low-cost chips, because I know that the Chinese government confiscated a large number of encrypted digital currencies last year, including all kinds of altcoins.

[JayJuanGee]

I don't disagree with some of your overall points Hydrogen, except to the extent that you are striving to frame these matters in left/right frameworks or commie/capitalism bullshit.

We can leave the frame aside, but the Bitcoin at least theoretically, fits better with an Austrian School theory of economics (capitalist), than with a Keynesian economic theory (more socialist-left), let alone a Marxist one, with which it does not fit at all.

Sure both you and I might be quibbling a wee bit too much in terms of proclaiming that we do not want to get too much into any kind of exact framework, but still end up kind of falling into one framework or another or prioritizing one framework over another.. and maybe that it is wee bit what I was hoping to avoid, even though I am likely NOT even innocent of it myself.

Another point that I was attempting to make revolves around some proclamations that even with bitcoin we are neither going to get rid of government completely nor be able to really proclaim in advance regarding various balances that might be struck in terms of bitcoin becoming more and more dominant in various locations.... so perhaps I am attempting to fight some of the libertarian sentiments that sometimes stream through some of the bitcoin threads that attempt to presume that we are just going to be able to get rid of government and then some of the public resources are just going to end up taking care of themselves, whether we are referring to various public resources like air, water and airwaves (radio waves) or we are having some concerns about public health and welfare - which some folks like to proclaim that there is little to no public interest in some of the public health and welfare matters, and I am not even going to disagree that some governments do seem to take things too far in terms of pushing some concerns that might not even end up being very helpful to have government interventions in certain kinds of ways... but some of the point, also, is that we might not even be able to agree anyhow, so it's not like anyone or any group can really impose their values and then to say that this is how we should do this, because sometimes some public interests are a matter of compromise in which everyone is not going to be happy even in terms of the conclusions about whether a public interest (or public good) was sufficiently at stake in order to justify an interventions.

Another thing is that nowadays we have politicians everywhere who do not follow theories so much as what they believe will give them more votes.

I doubt that there is really very much different about politics these days beyond the mere dynamic of information being way easier to disseminate, so in those kinds of dynamics need to be dealt with... Politicians have always engage in a variety of games and gamesmanship and all kinds of weird things, but some of the various political ideas are being batted around more quickly, and whether the free-flow of information is distracting or not, sure it changes what is going on and what might be possible, but in the end, it seems like a BIG so what if we are devolving into attempting to prescribe rather than describing....

I would not even assert that you are completely wrong in terms of attempting to frame some governments trying to be way more involved in seemingly social benefits areas, and they might end up having struggles in dealing with bitcoin differently than governments who might be less inclined towards providing social benefits, but I doubt that it is helpful to just lump governments into socialist or capitalists and try to presume from there in terms of if there might be more room for their being friendly rather than hostile to bitcoin.

Yes, while I think the framework that Hydrogen puts forward is correct, I also don't think it's a hard-and-fast division that we're going to see:

1) Left-wing governments: ban bitcoin.
2) Right wing governments: embrace bitcoin.

There will be a lot of grey areas and I don't think he puts it that way either, he talks about what is most likely.

I suppose that we will see.  I don't give too many shits, beyond attempting to appreciate that politics are going to continue, and bitcoin will go on either way.. and sure some administrations may well be more hostile to it than others, and to the extent that any of us might be concerned about politics in one direction or another we are surely free to join in on those circles.. and people from all political stripes can take a bitcoin position, so to a large degree it seems irrelevant and distracting to get too tied up in those frame works, at least from my current generalized thinkings on the topic.

what would you describe as strange exactly in terms of what is going on with bitcoin's price, bhooscream?  Anyone else believe that there is something strange that is going on with bitcoin's price movements and price dynamics, currently?  if so, please describe what is strange, exactly?

I am sure, you understand what I mean. What I am talking about is the situation that Bitcoin price hard to pass $50k lately. It has tried several times to maintain above $50k, but unfortunately always failed. One of the reasons is many FUDs spreading lately after we heard about China banned Bitcoin mining in the country. Then, we see the Bitcoin price move was mostly like dumped hardly in the last few weeks. It seems triggered by many FUDs spreading around us lately. However, it is only my personal view, sorry if it is not the same as you think, sir.

I just do not find price moves as playing out strangely as you have further attempted to describe. 

Of course, each of us is entitled to our own opinion regarding what we believe to be strange or not strange, and it just does not seem strange to me and largely I had already provided my reasons in my earlier post as to why I don't consider BTC's current price position/dynamic to be significantly strange.

[patientforzhou]

Congratulations on the completion of the de-Chineseization of Bitcoin. In the past few months, I have become tired of reading China’s news about Bitcoin. Whenever there is China in the title, I know that it will have a certain impact on the price of Bitcoin.

I especially hope that China will completely ban Bitcoin. As far as I know, China originally owned the vast majority of Bitcoin mining machines, which made me always worry about facing 51% attacks. However, China has now banned mining and various currency issuances, hoping to buy cheaper bitcoins from the Chinese.

[Lucius]

Congratulations on the completion of the de-Chineseization of Bitcoin. In the past few months, I have become tired of reading China’s news about Bitcoin. Whenever there is China in the title, I know that it will have a certain impact on the price of Bitcoin.

For months? Well then you are a very lucky man because you have not had to read such news for years like some other members of this forum. Just to show you an example from 2013 -> China bans banks from handling Bitcoin trade

I especially hope that China will completely ban Bitcoin. As far as I know, China originally owned the vast majority of Bitcoin mining machines, which made me always worry about facing 51% attacks. However, China has now banned mining and various currency issuances, hoping to buy cheaper bitcoins from the Chinese.

Bitcoin has been banned in China for years, all that happens occasionally is just an additional tightening of pre-existing measures that are then used to create a FUD. This will not end as easily as we had hoped, and we will probably hear more bad news from China in the future - because for some reason the Chinese Communist Party has decided to take a slow approach and gradually introduce measures, which means they have become sloppy.

[fillippone]

Some actions start taking place:


https://twitter.com/wublockchain/status/1442033490384474115?s=21

Buoni just stopped accepting new China onshore users, and will close every Chinese account by EOY.

Will other Chinese exchange follow?

[Coyster]

Will other Chinese exchange follow?

I suppose so, centralized exchanges have to comply to government laws and regulations, so I expect more exchanges in China to follow this same part. A part of me believes this is exactly what the Chinese government wants, news (FUD) such as this that prolly looks bad for Bitcoin, at least for those who do not sufficiently understand the network or how it has bounced back from far worse in previous times. That said, since this exchange is extending shutting off Chinese users till end of the year, could it be them waiting to see how all this pans out, considering this isn't the first time China have done something similar.

[stompix]

Huobi just stopped accepting new China onshore users, and will close every Chinese account by EOY.

Their current ban list is :

USE OF THE SERVICE BY PERSONS LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, SINGAPORE, HONG KONG CHINA, JAPAN, CUBA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, SUDAN, SYRIA, VENEZUELA AND CRIMEA IS PROHIBITED.
USE OF THE SERVICE BY PERSONS LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, SINGAPORE, HONG KONG CHINA, JAPAN, CUBA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, SUDAN, SYRIA, VENEZUELA AND CRIMEA IS PROHIBITED. IN ADDITION, ANYONE IN MAINLAND CHINA, TAIWAN CHINA, ISRAEL, IRAQ, BANGLADESH, BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, KYRGYZSTAN, SEVASTOPOL AND UK (RETAIL USERS ONLY) IS PROHIBITED FROM USING THE DERIVATIVES TRADING SERVICES PROVIDED BY THIS WEBSITE.

Reality beats the crap out of any SF scenario so they've banned the US and Cuba and Israel and Iran!
Since they haven't got a license in SK they will also have to ban both South Korea and North Korea users.

Not that I trust a random source but:

A Huobi spokesperson declined to comment. A Binance spokesperson said the company does not have exchange operations in China and blocks Chinese IPs, without commenting on the mobile registration move.

Seems like CZ knew something ahead of others, as usual, damn weasel.

Yes, while I think the framework that Hydrogen puts forward is correct, I also don't think it's a hard-and-fast division that we're going to see:

1) Left-wing governments: ban bitcoin.
2) Right wing governments: embrace bitcoin.

There will be a lot of grey areas and I don't think he puts it that way either, he talks about what is most likely.

I've never seen a complete right-wing government that would not borrow even one tiny aspect of the leftist ideology, most of the governments that were labeled extreme right had more to do with socialism than with the right move as it is defined and many are called so by their opposition just to label them as nazi or fascist.

If we go and start counting them one by one you will see that the Chinese government would be far more right-wing than the democratic party, nationalists, populisim, commerce laws, religion if we compare those the CCP is right-wing and the US is the left.

[Wendy Simth]

It seems that a key point is misunderstood. The document says that the institutions providing services are illegal, but it does not say that personal transactions of cryptocurrency are illegal. It shows that bitcoin is no longer a legally protected asset.Bitcoin trading, as a commodity trading behavior on the Internet, ordinary people have the freedom to participate at their own risk.

[bryant.coleman]

Reality beats the crap out of any SF scenario so they've banned the US and Cuba and Israel and Iran!
Since they haven't got a license in SK they will also have to ban both South Korea and North Korea users.

They can't accept the users from USA, else they will end up with the same fate as BTC-e/Wex.nz. The US government prohibits exchanges with relaxed KYC requirements from dealing with American users. Now coming to China, they are going to ban Chinese users based on IP. Using a VPN is also not going to work, because nowadays the exchanges are having software to identify VPN usage. The only option for the users in China is to access exchanges through TOR browser. But I don't know how Houbi will work in TOR. Else, they can travel to Hong Kong and use an IP from that location.

[BITCOIN4X]

Some actions start taking place:
https://twitter.com/wublockchain/status/1442033490384474115?s=21

Buoni just stopped accepting new China onshore users, and will close every Chinese account by EOY.

Will other Chinese exchange follow?

fillippone, it would be great to see licensed exchanges in China also follow suit for one reason and that is to still be able to operate their services and and get a license there. I don't know how many Chinese exchanges have been licensed so far, but I'm pretty sure other exchanges will comply with the law as well.

IMO, not many exchange are willing to relocate their services to another country that is more friendly to KYC or user regulations if at the same time they have enough active traders there that compliance with government rules will be considered. However, the communist nation has influenced many things on bitcoin from mining, trading issues to the latest regulations that trigger price movements. But I'm happy with the market reaction after that FUD disappeared within a few days.

[dezoel]

China is doing this because they hate decentralization and there is no two ways around it. Chinese people, specially people who are bankrolled by CCP will come out and say that china is number one and china is great and how other nations are bad.

However, we all know that there is really nothing that would be justified to defend china. We all joke about "if Jackiechan says anything bad about CCP then his whole family in china would be "disappeared" and would not be heard again" and even though it is not serious when we say it because we have no power, the fact that we could talk about it and know that it is a possibility is scary, just like "if you go against Putin in Russia, you would be found with 2 gunshot wounds to head and ruled as suicide" as well.

It is just way too scary to live in those nations, I may not love my nation 100% but I am so thankful to god that I do not live in those nations. China is just a horrible horrible place that doesn't even allow crypto because they are scared to give up a bit of their centralized rule.

[Wind_FURY]

The impression this move from China gave to me is, Bitcoin has only become MORE valuable in China, and that the people under that tyrannical State has come to need Bitcoin MORE than they did BEFORE the ban.

[lixer]

The impression this move from China gave to me is, Bitcoin has only become MORE valuable in China, and that the people under that tyrannical State has come to need Bitcoin MORE than they did BEFORE the ban.

That will 100% be true after this ban. The only way to move money away from the dictator was crypto and people were using that a lot. Now that it is fully banned (officially) people will look to find methods to save their money in crypto some other way. If you do it on P2P then officials will find where you are, pose as a trader, get to you and then they will prison you.

This is why it will be very very risky to continue, if you could do it online then they will do it online but they will not even risk the dangers of p2p so it is going to be very difficult. I hope that people there will be safe, because this is just another step of being a horrible nation.

[Botnake]

The impression this move from China gave to me is, Bitcoin has only become MORE valuable in China, and that the people under that tyrannical State has come to need Bitcoin MORE than they did BEFORE the ban.

That will 100% be true after this ban. The only way to move money away from the dictator was crypto and people were using that a lot. Now that it is fully banned (officially) people will look to find methods to save their money in crypto some other way. If you do it on P2P then officials will find where you are, pose as a trader, get to you and then they will prison you.

This is why it will be very very risky to continue, if you could do it online then they will do it online but they will not even risk the dangers of p2p so it is going to be very difficult. I hope that people there will be safe, because this is just another step of being a horrible nation.

China will never stop banning bitcoin until all the people who are secretly involve in it will stop from doing so. But that won't happen for sure. Bitcoin is becoming more irresistible these days so people will definitely find ways on how to continue its transactions even if it means doing it in some neighboring countries. And this continuous banning of bitcoin will even create more opportunities to those who are not yet involved into bitcoin because they will start to be curious on it and might eventually develop their interest investing in bitcoin. Well then, China will be more consistent in hating and banning bitcoin.

[Sithara007]

The impression this move from China gave to me is, Bitcoin has only become MORE valuable in China, and that the people under that tyrannical State has come to need Bitcoin MORE than they did BEFORE the ban.

Well... if you are a Chinese citizen, then do that at your own risk. There were reports from Canada that students from China, who used social media from their mobile phone to spread "Free Tibet" message were called up by the embassy and told to stop their activity. All their posts were anonymous, but somehow the CCP found out what they were doing. If they can do this to someone residing in Canada, don't you think that they will be able to do much more to those who are residing in China? If I were in your place, I would just stop my crypto activity at least until I could get out of China.

[Wind_FURY]

The impression this move from China gave to me is, Bitcoin has only become MORE valuable in China, and that the people under that tyrannical State has come to need Bitcoin MORE than they did BEFORE the ban.

That will 100% be true after this ban. The only way to move money away from the dictator was crypto and people were using that a lot. Now that it is fully banned (officially) people will look to find methods to save their money in crypto some other way. If you do it on P2P then officials will find where you are, pose as a trader, get to you and then they will prison you.

This is why it will be very very risky to continue, if you could do it online then they will do it online but they will not even risk the dangers of p2p so it is going to be very difficult. I hope that people there will be safe, because this is just another step of being a horrible nation.

China will never stop banning bitcoin until all the people who are secretly involve in it will stop from doing so. But that won't happen for sure. Bitcoin is becoming more irresistible these days so people will definitely find ways on how to continue its transactions even if it means doing it in some neighboring countries. And this continuous banning of bitcoin will even create more opportunities to those who are not yet involved into bitcoin because they will start to be curious on it and might eventually develop their interest investing in bitcoin. Well then, China will be more consistent in hating and banning bitcoin.

Then the China FUD is a good indicator that Bitcoin is still being used in China, and its activity is still at high/healthy levels because the government still gives it some of its time to “BAN” it. Hahaha.