“China Succeeds In Containing Crypto Risks” – Report

The Chinese government has succeeded in containing risks arising from cryptocurrency trading in the country, Chinese news outlet Yicai.com reported citing Zhang Yifeng, dean of the Zhongchao Blockchain Technology Research Institute, one of the earliest institutes to study distributed ledgers and cryptography in China.

In the article, Zhang was quoted as saying that “88 domestic cryptocurrency exchanges and 85 ICO [initial coin offering] platforms exited China without much disturbance,” adding that “Chinese trading volume in the global bitcoin market has dropped from over 90% in the past to currently less than 1%.”

Chinese regulators have “basically completed” clearing out initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto exchanges from the country, after a year of robust efforts to crack down on the platforms, as reported.

Also, due to the Chinese government’s war against the crypto market, Alipay, the mobile payment operator owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group, had to block more than 3,000 accounts that are associated with cryptocurrency trading, Yicai.com reported without disclosing its source.

The report added that among the other measures taken are shutting down the option of using the mobile payment app to make payments to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Huobi, which are both popular among Chinese crypto traders.

Huobi, which recently opened up for fiat-to-crypto trading in Australia, moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in response to the Chinese crypto trading ban in September 2017. In March, Binance announced its plan to move from Hong Kong to Malta.

China has committed to drive all cryptocurrency related activities out of the country as part of a broader government effort to “contain risks” arising from various forms of online financial services. In the past, local governments around China have also been encouraged to “guide” bitcoin miners out of the industry, but the industry has proven to be resilient.