The Shanghai branch of the People’s Bank of China has just commented on crypto yet again. According to the announcement, published on Friday, the branch of the Chinese central bank has observed a resurgence in cryptocurrency-related speculation through ICOs, IEOs, STOs, and other capital-raising/token distribution methods.
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The announcement continued that the sale of tokens for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other virtual currencies remains “essentially unauthorized illegal public financing, suspected of illegal sale of tokens, illegal issuance of securities and illegal fund-raising.” The PBoC’s Shanghai branch then added that crimes enabled via cryptocurrencies have “seriously disrupted the economic and financial disorder.”
As such, the Chinese central bank asserted that it will continue to “monitor the virtual currency business activities within the jurisdiction,” which will be “disposed of immediately” if discovered.
BREAKING
PBOC Shanghai Head office just made a new regulatory update as
“Strengthen regulation and control, clamp down cryptocurrency trading” pic.twitter.com/zL0BgOJBUF
— Dovey 以德服人 Wan
(@DoveyWan) November 22, 2019
Blockchain, Not Bitcoin & Crypto: Chinese Media
This comes shortly after Xinhua, the leading state-run publication (and the purportedly most-read media outlet) of the People’s Republic of China, released an entire article on Bitcoin. The article, whose title roughly translates to “Bitcoin: The First Successful Application of Blockchain Technology,” was seen by many on Twitter as a ground-breaking development for the crypto space; Xinhua’s readership likely ranges in the dozens of millions.
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When translated, however, it became apparent that the piece wasn’t as it seemed from the surface.
Head of Fidelity-affiliated Avon Ventures, a crypto-focused venture fund, Alex Thorn reminded to his followers that the article, while explaining the ins and outs of Bitcoin quite well, calls the cryptocurrency “highly concentrated/centralized” phenomena, something that is bad for the climate, and is something “most importantly” used for black market transactions.
Chinese state media (read: government) calls bitcoin:
•centralized
•bad for climate
•only used for black market txsIn other news, black is white, up is down, and China is good for the environment, definitely not centralized, and 100% only does good. https://t.co/ivzOKu35sO
— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) November 11, 2019
Thorn did joke, however, that China “isn’t” bad for the environment, centralized, and a 100% good actor — criticizing the hypocrisy of the nation bashing Bitcoin.
It is important to note that this isn’t the first time that a state-affiliated actor has tried to bash digital assets (that aren’t the government’s) by way of an article. The People’s Daily, another state-run outlet (often called a state mouthpiece by Western media), reminded the Chinese that Xi’s support for blockchain does not equate to support for crypto:
“The rise of blockchain technology was accompanied by that of cryptocurrencies, but innovation in blockchain technology does not mean we should speculate in virtual currencies.”
This article also purportedly called cryptocurrencies a term that directly translates to “air coins,” Chinese slang for “s**tcoins,” according to some involved in China’s crypto space on Twitter.
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