Behind the Headlines
Once again, the China FUD is real. The People’s Bank of China has published a new document detailing how it plans to get tougher on cryptocurrency trading. The central bank said Friday that all services that let users trade fiat currencies and crypto assets or between crypto-assets are now considered illegal activities, reports Wolfie Zhao. Wolfie adds that the new policy will specifically target over-the-counter services available on Huobi, OXEx, and Binance that allow Chinese users to exchange yuan for cryptocurrency.
Separately, Wolfie reports that in the months following China’s crackdown on crypto mining, mining at home with GPUs has surged in popularity. Could the new policy pronouncement spell trouble for at-home miners, too? That’s not clear yet. But Sparkpool, the world’s largest Ethereum mining pool, has already said it will stop providing services to miners based on mainland China.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey said that “China’s authoritarian crackdown on crypto” represents “a big opportunity” for the U.S. “Beijing is so hostile to economic freedom that they cannot even tolerate their people participating in what is arguably the most exciting innovation in finance in decades,” said Toomey.