China’s Central Bank declared all crypto activities illegal on Friday and promised to crack down on the market.
People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said its strictly prohibited to offer trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies, CNBC reported.
Overseas crypto exchanges are also banned from providing services in mainland China. PBOC also noted that its systems have been improved to monitor cyrpto-related transactions.
The PBOC the statement said:
Overseas virtual currency exchanges that use the internet to offer services to domestic residents is also considered illegal financial activity.
The recent blow to crypto follows China’s concerns over cryptocurrency trading’s connection to fraud, money laundering and excessive energy consumption.
China is one of the largest crypto markets in the world. This is the latest crackdown of China on crypto currency trading but it is not the first.
In May, the country promised to focus its attention on crypto mining following growing concerns of expanding carbon footprint increase.
Bloomberg reported earlier today that China’s economic planning agency said “it’s an urgent task for the nation to root out crypto mining, and the crackdown is important to meet carbon goals.”
