China kills crypto

The Future. It was only a matter of time, but China has banned the use of all cryptocurrencies or anything blockchain related in the country. It may be a ploy to prop up China’s own digital currency, which has all the trappings of crypto… besides the decentralized part.

Bye bye, Bitcoin
The major draw of cryptocurrencies is of a payment system that is totally decentralized… and now the very centralized government of China is making them illegal.

• The People’s Bank of China stated that cryptocurrencies “are not legal and should not and cannot be used as currency in the market.”
• That ban also includes “buying and selling virtual assets” (aka NFTs) or the transference of any token that exists on blockchain technology.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum, and several other alt-coins all slipped in trading due to Beijing’s announcement.

Freddie Williams, a trader at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, downplayed how effective the ban will be in practice, saying it has typically “not prevented adoption of Bitcoin and digital assets from continuing their upward trend.”

That may be true, but China has been extra keen on cracking down on financial crimes this past year, including celebrity tax evasion and whatever the government considers to be damaging growth. If Beijing truly does enforce the ban, it would be yet another victim of the country’s closed internet policy.