Beijing: Taking a serious step towards cracking down cryptocurrency, Chinese authorities have blocked more than 120 offshore crypto exchanges. As per the reports of South China Morning Posts, the authorities took this step on the backdrop of financial risk and instability.
It is also been said that there will be continuous monitoring by the government on any crypto news sites and announcements of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). The government will block the news sites and deny the user access by blocking their IP addresses if any such news appears.
The authorities took this step after some hotels in Beijing were banned from hosting events related to cryptocurrencies as well as blockchain news accounts on WeChat were also banned last week. As per the reports of South China Morning Posts, almost eight crypto media outlets were affected due to this on WeChat.
China’s aversion for crypto is not a surprise. Ban was imposed by Chinese authorities on all new ICOs as well as existing crypto exchanges in September 2017. Chinese regulators consider the ICOs as ‘unauthorized illegal fundraising activities’.
The perception and worries of the authorities are on the backdrop of the ICOs which were found to be complete scams and which robbed the hard-earned cash of Chinese people with doubtful claims and fake promises of wealth.
Despite all the efforts, the attempts of government to block cryptocurrencies are not looking fruitful. The international crypto market saw a steep decline after the news of the ban in 2017, it was reported by Forbes that the local Chinese crypto market recovered in a few weeks only.
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The uncertainties of the Chinese government towards digital currencies are not applicable to the blockchain. The central bank of China came up with its own Digital Currency Research Institute in 2017 which raised the speculations that a national state-backed cryptocurrency on the blockchain might soon become a reality.
According to reports of Coindesk, the IT Ministry of China also came up with Trusted Blockchain Open Lab, a research facility, that too within a few days after the ban on bitcoin trading was imposed.
This move is also seen to pave a path for China to come up with its own digital currency. With its own digital currency, China might counter the dominance of the US Dollar as the relationship between China and the US has tattered.
