The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has reiterated its commitment to barring speculation in cryptocurrencies from the Chinese domestic market by declaring that they lack any “real value support.”
“We once again remind the general public that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are not statutory money, and do not have any real value support,” said Yin Youping (尹优平), deputy-head of PBOC’s financial consumer protection department on 27 August, at a press conference on financial risk awareness in China.
“Transactions in relation to virtual currency are purely categorised as investment speculation, and the general public must strengthen its risk awareness, consciously distance themselves, and protect their wallets.”
Yin said that the Chinese central bank had worked with other authorities in China this year to monitor overseas exchanges and domestic traders, as well as block any trading sites and app channels. According to Yin this has led to a marked decline in the popularity of cryptocurrency trading and speculation within China.
The next step for PBOC will be to “establish normalised work mechanisms, maintain the trend of high pressure, and continue to strike against trading operations in relation to virtual currencies.”
“If the general public uncovers clues in relation to illegal fund-raising crimes, they must promptly report them to the relevant authorities,” said Yin.
In the first half of 2021 Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on Bitcoin mining which stamped out related activities in multiple provinces across the country, as well as a campaign against speculative cryptocurrency investment via offshore platforms following a spike in global Bitcoin prices.
