When the China crypto ban, a sweeping government crackdown on cryptocurrency trading and mining that began in 2021 and tightened through 2023. Also known as China's cryptocurrency prohibition, it didn’t just limit access—it forced entire industries underground or overseas. Unlike other countries that regulate crypto, China chose to shut it down completely. Banks were ordered to cut off crypto transactions. Exchanges like Binance and Huobi were blocked. Mining farms were shut down, often with little warning. The goal? To protect the yuan, control capital flight, and keep financial activity under state oversight.
But the ban didn’t kill crypto use—it just moved it. People still trade. Miners relocated to Kazakhstan, Russia, and the U.S. Some use VPNs to access foreign exchanges, just like users in Bangladesh or Nigeria. Others trade peer-to-peer through local OTC markets, paying in cash or bank transfers. Even though it’s illegal, crypto remains popular among retail traders who see it as a way to preserve wealth outside the banking system. The crypto mining China, the once-dominant sector that produced over 70% of Bitcoin’s hash rate before the ban. Also known as Chinese Bitcoin mining, it’s now mostly gone from the country—but the hardware, expertise, and capital didn’t disappear. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency regulations China, a complex mix of legal gray zones, enforcement gaps, and local variations. Also known as China’s digital currency policy, it’s not just about banning Bitcoin—it’s about promoting the digital yuan (e-CNY) as the only legal digital money. While the central bank pushes its own blockchain-based currency, private crypto remains strictly off-limits for banks, payment processors, and financial institutions.
What you’ll find below isn’t a list of legal workarounds—it’s a collection of real stories, failed platforms, and risky experiments tied to the fallout of the ban. You’ll see how traders in other countries with similar restrictions navigate the same problems. You’ll learn about exchanges that vanished overnight, tokens that lost all value, and scams that preyed on people desperate to trade. These aren’t hypotheticals. These are the consequences of a policy that tried to erase crypto—and how people kept going anyway.
13 February
Despite China's 2021 crypto ban, 59 million people still trade crypto underground using VPNs, P2P platforms, and stablecoins. Here's how they do it - and why the government can't stop them.
