TECH TALK
China’s Crypto Crackdown
IT TOOK LONGER THAN MANY OF US EXPECTED, but the beginning of the end for the latest surge in cr yptocurrency prices seems to have finally arrived. Predicting this stuff is about as accurate as predicting the weather 28 days in advance, and who knows? By the time you read this, maybe something else will have happened and prices will be heading back up. But realistically, China’s crackdown on mining and cr yptocurrency use in general looks to have radically altered the cr yptolandscape. Sorr y, no more made-up cr yptowords, I promise.
Jarred Walton
This isn’t the first time China has taken a negative stance toward bitcoin and its ilk, but in the most recent surge, things apparently got a bit out of hand. Now, the Chinese government is taking a dual-pronged approach to attacking crypto. First, China has tightened its restrictions on banking and payment companies dealing with cryptocurrencies. While the government already limited what banks could do with crypto since 2013, the latest directions from the People’s Bank of China, as an example, state that institutions must not accept virtual currencies in any form or provide the ability to exchange virtual currencies for the Chinese yuan or other foreign currencies. There are also restrictions on storing crypto for people looking to invest, and 2017’s ban on ICOs (initial coin offerings) remains in effect.