Chinese Crypto Enthusiasts Find Way Around Government Regulations

2017 was clearly the year of the cryptocurrencies. While the soaring digital tokens have gathered a huge audience all over the world, the governments of most countries are still skeptical as they cannot regulate this rogue market to their benefit.

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The government of China banned all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country in September, after successfully banning the controversial ICOs.

This was a huge blow to Chinese crypto enthusiasts and investors, as China was the leading market for Bitcoin trading worldwide.

But now it seems that Chinese citizens have found a way around the regulations, and are managing to invest and earn quick bucks from the booming crypto economy.

According to a recent report by the South China Morning Post, Chinese crypto traders are now using the country’s over-the-counter (OTC) platforms to invest in cryptocurrencies.

In November, the authors of China’s National Committee of Experts on the Internet Financial Security Technology’s Bitcoin OTC Report claimed: “OTC trading is booming […], which warrants further attention.”

The report also mentioned that amid the ban, Chinese yuan OTC Bitcoin trading tripled, from 5 percent in early September to 20 percent in October.

The South China Morning Post also reported that Chinese traders are using OTC platforms to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with bank transfers, Alipay, and WeChat Pay, as payment processing platforms.

Matthew Graham, chief executive of Sino Global Capital, a Beijing-based technology advisory company, said: “After a period of caution following the September government actions, the China blockchain community is open for business.”

“We expect this to continue and even increase,” he added.

But this is not all the measures that Chinese citizens are taking to ignore government rules.

According to reports, Chinese crypto players are also taking trips to adjacent jurisdictions like Hong Kong to buy cryptocurrency and then selling it on the Chinese market via private groups on platforms like WeChat.

The banished crypto exchanges are also very determined to stay in business, and are in search for a new home in Asia. The largest (former) Chinese crypto exchange Huobi has announced its ties with Japanese SBI Group to launch two new crypto exchanges in Japan next year.