China’s Bitcoin ban continues to make waves. The country’s own crypto industry is retreating, while Binance is also losing ground in Singapore. This time, however, a message from the United States ensures optimism in the crypto market. The regulatory ECHO.
Fed chief against crypto ban
The fact that the Bitcoin price was back on the uptrend on Friday is due not least to Jerome Powell to Hodler. The head of the US Federal Reserve (Feder Reserve Seystem; Fed for short) announced on the evening of September 30th that a crypto ban was not on the agenda of his agency. During a question and answer session in the US Congress, Powell distanced himself from the restrictive course of those in power in Beijing. With reference to stablecoins, Powell emphasized that regulation remains irrevocable.
Bitcoin exchanges are dismantling the tents in China
Several crypto exchanges have responded to the Chinese government’s Bitcoin transaction ban. The two giants Huobi and Binance have not been accepting new registrations from customers with Chinese cell phone numbers since September 24th. The trading platforms Biki and BitMart, which are mostly active in Asia, also took similar steps. Binance also announced that Chinese IP addresses are now also being blocked. Like from one announcement as of Sept. 26, Huobi plans to continue closing all existing accounts by the end of the year. Details are to be made public in the near future. Biki and BitMart are going even faster, they want to have liquidated all accounts by November 30th. The crypto exchange CoinEx, on the other hand, has not allowed Chinese new customers since 2019. You too announcedto close all existing China accounts by October 30th. Hong Kong users can at least continue to use Huobi and Binance.
Crypto companies are leaving the Middle Kingdom
In addition to the Bitcoin exchanges, other Chinese crypto-related companies also took defensive steps last week. These include the popular Feixiaohao crypto news portal, which the Chinese used to query current price developments. The information portal announced that it would cease its services on the Chinese mainland on September 28th. But even the retail giant Alibaba has to accept compromises. The platform will of course remain active, but some products will no longer be represented in the range in the future. According to one Blog post from September 27th, this includes equipment for Bitcoin mining on the one hand. In addition, Alibaba will also not sell any information materials or software relating to mining and cryptocurrencies in the future.
China is stopping Bitcoin mining
In parallel to the ban on transactions, the Chinese government continues to take action against Bitcoin mining, which has been a criminal offense in the Middle Kingdom for several months. On September 27, authorities in Bayan Nur city in Inner Mongolia confiscated 10,000 mining equipment. The access by the officials in an industrial park was preceded by a notice. This shows that a specially set up reporting system by the Chinese authorities is bearing fruit. Electricity suppliers and other relevant bodies exchange information here that could provide information about illegal mining operations. The focus is on monitoring power consumption, since mining Bitcoin is a noticeably energy-consuming affair. In Inner Mongolia alone, the authorities have so far found 45 mining companies.
Binance: under pressure worldwide?
For Binance in particular, the last week (s) brought little positive news. Because the Bitcoin exchange recently came under attack not only in China, but also in Singapore. On September 27, the company announced that customers from Singapore would have to forego a number of services from the end of October. This includes depositing fiat currencies, exchanging fiat for crypto as well as spot trading and liquid swap. Users from the island nation are encouraged to withdraw their assets from the world’s largest crypto exchange by October 26th. As a consequence, Apple and Google took the Binance application out of their app stores. In Australia, Binance announced a comparable restriction of its own range of services on September 21. In Germany, it would appear that derivatives trading will at least disappear from the trading platform on December 23.
The only dubious bright spot: In the US, Binance is supporting the authorities in a measure against the Bitcoin exchange Suex. The Russian trading platform is alleged to be involved in money laundering. Binance is investigating accounts related to Suex. Does this mean Binance wants to wash away its own negligence in terms of user authentication?