China’s Supreme Court has revised its legal interpretation of fundraising, making fundraisers in Bitcoin or other crypto currencies illegal.
The Chinese entity then said it had revisited its statement and asserts the following:
“Decision on the modification of the interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on several issues concerning the specific application of the law in the trial of criminal cases of illegal fundraising.”
Supreme Court of China
China’s strict crypto policy is nothing new, and the country has already announced numerous bans against various crypto-related activities over the past decade. One of the biggest crackdowns came in 2021, when a committee made up of some of the top regulators issued a blanket ban on all crypto-currency-related activities.
This statement was quickly picked up around the world as yet another “China Ban on Crypto Currencies.”
The new guidelines decreed that all crypto transactions were illegal in mainland China and banned foreign crypto exchange platforms such as Binance or FTX from offering their services. Since then, China’s regulators have continued to implement this policy of banning crypto assets and have eliminated the majority of crypto mining activities as well as crypto-related trading activities taking place in the country.
Does China reject Bitcoin and cryptos?
Although China’s strict regulation suggests that it is not interested in taking advantage of Bitcoin and other crypto-currency technology, the country has every intention of not missing the train.
Indeed, China’s strategy is to take advantage of this new technology and the benefits it brings, while strictly regulating its use in order to maintain maximum control.
This mode of operation is certainly very ambitious and goes against the majority of the values that drive Bitcoin and crypto currencies, but it is the option offered to the Chinese people.
The recent arrival, of a Chinese digital wallet, did not scare off the locals who downloaded the app en masse, although the draft crypto called Digital Yuan looks much more like a centralized token, issued and tracked by a central bank.
What consequences follow the Supreme Court’s statement?
The review is not just focused on cryptoassets. Indeed, it also clarified the conviction and punishment of crimes related to illegal fundraising. While maintaining four of the original features of the law, it added crime, online lending and finally, digital currency transactions, such as Bitcoin or other crypto currencies, to the revised list.
This addition of crypto currency transactions in the new legal interpretation, would mean that in the event of illegal fundraising from the public in the form of crypto currencies, those responsible would be punishable under the new revised law.
The new law is expected to come into effect on March 1, 2022.
