Chinese Payments Associations Back China's Crypto Ban in Latest Warning
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An association has doubled down on the central bank’s ban on financial institutions and payment firms from engaging in business related to cryptocurrency transactions. It has also warned investors against crypto trading which it has described as speculative.
“Recently, cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed and plummeted, and speculative trading of cryptocurrency has rebounded, seriously infringing on the safety of people’s property and disrupting the normal economic and financial order,” three industry bodies said in a combined statement today. Those three bodies are the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association, and the Payment and Clearing Association of China.
Though the country’s alpha bank has not contributed any new updates to this ban, the People’s Bank of China did share the group’s latest warnings in its official WeChat group.
One of the cryptocurrencies that has recently plummeted is of course BTC, the world’s flagship cryptocurrency. Today, BTC is down to $43,000, representing a decline of 22% in the last seven days.
The move comes at a time when China has a well-developed central bank digital currency program, which many consider to be world-leading.
Editor’s note, May 18 at 11:15am EST: This article has been updated to reflect that the crypto ban on Chinese firms has been in place since 2017. Today, the three payment associations have renewed warnings around crypto speculation.
