On Sunday, several prominent social media accounts started sharing news of China banning cryptocurrency trading and mining (yet again).
Kalshi, the official X account of the popular betting site, and First Squawk amplified the unsubstantiated rumor. The all-caps headline published by the former, which cites capital flight and environmental concerns, attracted almost 800,000 views.
Su Zhu, founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, has said that there is "zero evidence" from his Chinese source about any fresh cryptocurrency ban imposed by the government.
Pseudonymous Chinese cryptocurrency blogger Colin Wu has also stated that there is no evidence of new restrictions.
China's confusing crypto bans
China banning Bitcoin has become a running joke within the cryptocurrency community after such stories used to dominate the news cycle.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) initially prohibited local financial institutions from conducting Bitcoin transactions in late 2013.
China's huge cryptocurrency crackdown took place in September 2017 when the second-largest economy imposed a blanket ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) while also banning domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, forcing them to move overseas.
Finally, as reported by U.Today, China moved to crack down on its thriving mining industry in 2021.
Is there anything left to ban?
In his post, Wu has clarified that China has never banned individual crypto transactions.
Moreover, he has added that Bitcoin mining still occurs in many parts of China despite the 2021 clampdown.
In fact, China still accounts for 21% of the global hashrate.
Finally, stablecoins and real-world assets (RWAs) are also gaining prominence in China among government officials.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team