According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese investors in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are finding ways of bypassing restrictions that have effectively outlawed their preferred assets even after Binance and Huobi, two major crypto trading platforms, have vowed to purge mainland users. The platforms’ announcements come at the end of a rough year for Chinese crypto investors, who have seen online communities shut down, pricing websites go dark, and major exchanges suspend services.
China announced a complete crackdown on the crypto industry.
Chinese authorities announced a complete crackdown on the crypto industry earlier this year. Harsher measures from crypto exchanges come after Beijing specified this year that any offshore crypto platforms serving mainland clients are illegal. Huobi and Binance said they would disable transactions in Chinese yuan by the end of December. Huobi has already halted new registrations using phone numbers from mainland China and said it would start charging a 0.2% monthly fee for any Chinese accounts with a balance next year.
Crypto exchanges ended OTC trading in yuan.
The recent crackdown on the crypto industry even ended over-the-counter (OTC) trading in yuan on these platforms, removing a major trading method among domestic investors after exchanges were forced offshore in 2017. Users could previously purchase cryptocurrencies directly with yuan through banks or commonly-used online payment platforms. At least eight other platforms have also announced they will no longer support yuan purchases from next month. Some people who already have crypto holdings plan to carry on despite the legal risks and regulatory hostility. Common approaches to continue trading involve using virtual private networks (VPN), registering foreign email addresses, and shifting assets to less centralized exchanges.
