China Says it Has Closed all Crypto Exchanges – But Traders, Miners May Still Be Active

cryptonews.com:

The Chinese central bank – the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) – says that all crypto exchanges and peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platforms have now been closed down on the Mainland. But it appears the authorities are still fighting an ongoing struggle against crypto mining, with many advocates thought to have taken their operations underground.

Lanjinger reported that the PBoC has released its final quarterly report for the financial year 2021, where it made a number of claims about the success of its crypto crackdown, enacted in September last year.

It claimed that in a bid to “rectify financial chaos,” it had “severely cracked down on illegal and financial criminal activities.” The PBoC claimed that it had done away with “unlicensed internet-based asset management institutions and unlicensed payment institutions,” in addition to “equity crowdfunding platforms.”

“All” forms of P2P online lending platforms, including crypto-related platforms, have “ceased operating,” it added.

Furthermore, the bank report’s authors claimed, domestic “virtual currency trading and token issuance financing platforms” had been shut down, while overseas crypto and forex trading platform access has also been “blocked.”

The PBoC claimed that its measures had helped reduce the risk of “shadow banking” and removed unhealthy forms of uncertainty from the economy.

But stamping out crypto in a nation that was once that sector’s center of gravity is proving to be tricky. Per GWI data compiled in 2018, a staggering 31% of Chinese net users used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) back then, while the more recent data is not available. And while the authorities have attempted to stamp out VPN usage by fining users almost USD 150 for making use of the software,