Chinese Central Bank Researching New Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Regulations

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The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) says it is currently in the process of drafting new measures for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

Li Bo (李波), PBOC Deputy-Governor, said that Bitcoin and stablecoins are cryptoassets that function as investment alternatives as opposed to act as a new form of money.

According to Li cryptoassets could play a major role as investment tools or replacement investments in future, and China is currently one of multiple countries that are in the process of researching the development of new regulatory measures for this emerging area of finance.

The PBOC Deputy-governor made the remarks on 18 April, during a digital payments and digital currency discussion held at the Bo’ai Forum.

Li highlighted the necessity of ensuring that speculation in cryptoassets does not create major financial risk, and said that China would maintain existing regulatory measures for cryptocurrencies prior to the research and development of new rules.

China essentially snuffed out the domestic Bitcoin market in late 2017 with the launch of regulations in September of that year banning initial coin offerings (ICO) and other cryptocurrency transactions made via exchanges within the country.