What's the deal with bitcoin regulations in China?

Check out this news article to see what I mean: https://www.mexc.co/news/1127003 But seriously, why do we keep getting this kind of news? I remember seeing something similar back in 2022 or 2023. Bitcoin isn’t completely banned in China it's just that it can’t be used as a currency, but you can still own it as an asset. This 2019 article still holds true: https://cryptoslate.com/chinese-court-upholds-legal-bitcoin-ownership-btc-protected-china-property-law/ I've seen people on this forum claiming that bitcoin is fully banned in China, so I tried to set the record straight for some of them.

If you want to have peace with your bitcoin, then avoid China. For those that are already in China or Chinese, the only have the last option of being privacy conscious, because I've also come across several news that go against the first attack on Bitcoin in China and now the and seeing the same thing repeatedly which means, even the government can be predictable because they can always go against their words, maybe in some region this is permitted to be used while in some other region it is not, you need to play smart for those that find themselves in such situation.

Selling drugs in the US is prohibited and punishable! Stealing drugs from someone is still theft, and the IRS still demands you pay taxes if you make profits from dealing drugs! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_of_illegal_income_in_the_United_States Simple, the Chinese court recognized those as that guy's property, but this doesn't make them legal!

This year, the Chinese government issued a notice reiterating the ban on all crypto activities. The country even broadened the scope of the restrictions to include tokenization and stablecoin issuance. I understand that court decisions or judgments become law in their jurisdiction. Since the judgment came from a District court, it might not be binding on the entire nation. Maybe a judgment from the Supreme People's Court would have had more influence. In a country where powers are highly centralized, the courts might not have much influence. The National Congress of the Communist Party of China influences all the arms of government.

Okay good information. So if one wants to have Bitcoin as a property they will have to trade with their currency, and if trading is restricted how then will they be able to own part of Bitcoin? Probably those that own Bitcoin there already, probably bought before the restriction. Or maybe they went exta mile to work with foreignes to make it possible, regardless its a difficult one. so if one wants to accumulate Bitcoin Weekly's he or she has to pass through stress, it going to be a discouragement. Oh well I'm not in chaina anyways. At least they didn't restrict Gold

From my understanding, Chinese Court recognise BTC as property. It can be owned or inherited and has legal protection from theft. It's still nonsense if you're not allowed to spend it publicly. I mean why should someone hold something they can not spend as long as they remain in that territory? Government is just a joke  there is no way I will pay tax from making profit from what they banned. If they care about tax, they better legalise it.

This is absolutely normal if you ask me, majority of people usually when they see a news headline, they don't open the news to read the details of it, they simply go with whatever is written on the headline meanwhile most of the time, what is written on the headline may not be the exact case in the body or detail of the news, but the news authors simply try to use a headline that will be as catchy as possible not minding whether it's a lie or not, and those who simply read that headline alone go on believe the lie that it is. This is exactly same in Nigeria since some people still believe that Bitcoin and crypto transactions are banned in Nigeria, meanwhile this ban is only limited to the banks and other financial institutions, but many people believe that there is an outright ban on the usage of bitcoin and other crypto assets in the whole of Nigeria. So I am honestly not surprised seeing that same misunderstanding or wrong perception is also going on in China as well.

Why? I own a 4x4 buggy that we use on our farm, the thing is highly modified and is illegal by any traffic rules in Europe, the moment I go outside my property I could get fined and the vehicle confiscated. It's still my property, you're not allowed to steal it, and you will go to prison for trying it do so, and the judge will give the vehicle back to me!  Let's get in the digital thing: You hack my Pokémon account, and you sell all my Pokémon. If the court finds you guilty of stealing and you have to pay me back or return them to me did the court suddenly make Pokemon legal merchandise or Pokemon coins are now legal tender?

I think you're missing my point. Your buggy is illegal on public roads but at least you can still use it in your farm. This means it has utility same case with pokemon because you can trade or play with it within the game. But the case of Bitcoin is China is completely different. You can not spend it or trade it legally. So the only utility is HODL. This doesn't make sense to me because it's just like a car you're only allowed to own but it has to parked forever. Unless there is change of policy later.

It seems they have no way to tax passive property as long as holders are prohibited from realizing profits or simply transferring them to others(1). So, owning Bitcoin there is practically useless if you're a law-abiding citizen. But the fact is, crypto activity hasn't completely disappeared there, to the point where Binance has been accused of facilitating crypto transactions for Chinese citizens through a backdoor(2). 1) https://vezgo.com/blog/china-crypto-tax-guide/ 2) https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-crypto-craving-back-door-093000885.html

People can read news and misunderstand it or they release such news, spread such news intentionally to make fud in the market. In the second case, they understand it very well but they try to rewrite it, and explain it inaccurately for market manipulations. Whales and market makers are smart enough to understand government regulations accurately but they know how to make most people in the market panic. In Bitcoin history, China is always a hub of many Bitcoin fuds but with time, from Bitcoin mining hashrate migration to other nations, and Bitcoin market growth and expansion to more countries globally, this nation has less impacts on Bitcoin market. Of course, market makers will continue to use news from China for their manipulations and there are still many people in the market won't change themselves and let their psychology, emotion and action affected too.

They are not completely wrong, are they. It is true that the Chinese government has not banned individuals from owning BTC, and more than one Chinese court have ruled that BTC is a legal property within China. However, it is illegal to interact with BTC in any commercial tx. Mining is banned, so is trading. BTC is also prohibited as a currency. Etc. But it is a legal property, so if you steal it and you are caught, you'd go to jail and the coins would be returned to the owner, and that's what played out in this story.

So in your intention I think what you want is that the government should actually totally ban even the holding of the coin and once you’re caught it should be confiscated or what you’re saying is that if it’s stolen since its illegal there shouldn’t be any punishment for the thief? What I understand is that China thinks banning even the coin as a property is a stricter rule and that’s why they are allowing it, but they don’t want it trade in their country. This doesn’t mean that crime committed against an offender should be ignored because it’s still a crime. The thing I agree with you though is that it should not be taxed again, rather if you’re found selling it should be confiscated because taxing an illegal property is your way of telling me to actually get rid of it. In the end government do what benefits them and not the citizens

You're absolutely right! Chinese citizens retain the right to own Bitcoin private keys and pass them on to their heirs. No one restricts them from doing so. Bitcoin is classified as property in China. We all understand that the theft of any property results in criminal prosecution by law enforcement. This is true for China as well as other countries. The state (understandably) cannot allow crimes to be committed with impunity on its territory. 🙋 At the same time, as we all know, using Bitcoin as a means of payment is prohibited in China. The activities of any cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency companies are also prohibited in China. Officially, mining is also prohibited in China (although it's quite possible that Bitcoin is being mined secretly in China).  Incidentally, for corrupt Chinese officials (members of the Chinese Communist Party), mining Bitcoin has now become much easier, in my opinion... AI data centers are being built at a rapid pace in all of China's provinces. Who's stopping officials from hiding their own mining farms among state-owned equipment? And using free electricity and powerful cooling systems? 💁

What does "banned as a currency" mean? Bitcoin is hardly ever used for everyday payments, and 99.9% of the time it's viewed only as an investment. And what is a "payment" anyhow, except a transaction where you trade your Bitcoin for some other thing? That's perfectly legal in China. The only thing China ruled against was ownership of Bitcoin by its major banks on their balance sheets. But that doesn't affect hardly anything. Repeat after me: Bitcoin is legal in China. Bitcoin is legal almost everywhere. Bitcoin is not in danger of being "shutdown" or otherwise attacked by anybody today. I know some people love to feel like they are doing something "shady" or love to feel like they are sticking it to their government by using Bitcoin, but for almost all of the world's people, Bitcoin is about as illegal as drinking a glass of water.

When people say that Bitcoin is banned in China, they are not making mistakes. Because literally anything related to crypto which have always made the crypto community active world wide is banned in China, such as crypto trading, Bitcoin mining and even the official launching of new coins popularly known as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) is also banned in China. So in a situation like this, when a person says that Bitcoin who happens to also be a crypto is banned in China, then the person did not make a mistake. Because despite Bitcoin being seen as a digital property in view of the Chinese law, does not automatically makes it an asset anybody in China can just hold without been cautious.

So in essence, the Chinese government is protecting Bitcoin as property but doesn't recognize it as a legal tender. I have never seen a complicated government like China but they are what they are, if they don't allow public social media platforms because they fear what's not originated from there place, then Bitcoin likelihood of acceptance will be dead on arrival and to say Chinese used to be one of the top holders of Bitcoin, most of them don't even talk about it anymore. The government will rather banned Bitcoin than let you walk away without paying tax on it. The court recognize it as property for a reason and that is because of the tax. If it's not property, there is nothing to be tax on it. The government knows that even with the restriction and banned, they know there are individuals that have their wealth in Bitcoin before the ban and some are still holding. If you look at when they recognize Bitcoin as property, it was way back when Bitcoin was bullish then, the tax was on their eyes.

Governments are more likely to offer their own gains other than offering justice to owners of these properties. It is extremely unusual to prohibit trade and continue taxing them. When an asset is an illegal one, it does not make sense that the government would proceed to divide up the profits. The move which decided to seizes the coins that were being sold by individuals who have been selling coins seems to have been an effort to close down the market by force.

I believe despite of banning crypto or btc in China, a lot of their people are still into crypto, hiding their crypto transactions because after all, the government can't track all their transactions especially if they are using VPN and other privacy connections. Just read this article and you will understand that Chinese people after all did not disappear their presence from the crypto mining aspect. So I don't know what kind of restriction China holds on these miners.  Bitcoin mining in China rebounds, defying 2021 ban

Guys, we are no longer newbies and beginners of this forum, it's laughable reading some of your posts in this thread because I've been on here for so long now and I can remember perfectly that banning bitcoin is something that china does almost every four years and the funny part is this always happen when the bull market is over, please tell me that I am not the only one who knew that is just a way to always make it look this way, it doesn't count and I have gotten used and tired to such news from china.