Despite the Chinese Government’s decision to ban the trading of bitcoins in the country, it is legal that citizens keep the currency in China. The information was given by Sa Xiao, Board member of the Association of Research of the Bank of China’s laws. In addition, Xiao considers the occasional bitcoins exchange between individuals is also legal, according to the news published on CCN.
In September 2017, the local press reported that China banned officially the trade of cryptocurrencies. On that occasion, stock exchanges such as OKCoin, Huobi and BTC China had to close their operations in China.
Thus, the trade of cryptocurrencies was strictly forbidden in China up to now. In August 2018, the Government of China has strengthened the ban on over-the-counter markets (OTC), when requesting to Alipay, the Fintech application most used in the global market, to restrain the trading in this market.
SA Xiao emphasized further that it is highly risky for a company to run a bitcoin trading business in China. He says that if the company causes damages to potential customers, it could have “serious consequences”. That would include punishment under criminal law.
Negotiation is still prohibited
However, while the negotiation is strictly prohibited, holding bitcoins, which is considered a sort of commodity in many major markets, is still legal. Xiao stated that even the occasional P2P trade (peer-to-peer) can be recognized as one of the property rights and cannot be punishable by law.
Basically, the Chinese Government banned all crypto market areas that can be banned, as the trade. This is a regulatory approach which is opposed to the one conducted by Japan and other major markets. Recently, an agency part of the Chinese Government suggested the ban on bitcoin mining, possibly in an attempt to restructure the crypto market in favor of the country.
Therefore, there is no sign that China intends to relieve its pressure on the sector. Thus, the perspective is the negotiations will probably remain banned in the short term. Nevertheless, owning bitcoins in China, as well as other crypto crypto, is not forbidden.
