Here's why China's crypto ban is 'bigger than most people think'

China announced a crackdown on "ICOs" — issuing of new virtual currencies;
Wording of edict makes all cryptocurrency trading illegal, according to eToro China exec.

An investor looks at an electronic screen at a brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, January 26, 2016. LONDON — China's crackdown on "initial coin offerings" may be much wider than first thought, potentially making all cryptocurrency trading illegal.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) on Monday outlawed ICOs, a method of raising money by issuing new digital currencies. The trend has become hugely popular, with over $1.5 billion raised using this method in 2017 alone.

However, the wording of the PBoC edict also suggested that trading and usage of all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, is now illegal in China.

The PBoC said that virtual currencies that are "not issued by the monetary authorities... do not have legal status equivalent to money, and can not and should not be circulated as a currency in the market use."

The PBoC added that "any so-called tokens financing trading platform shall not engage in the exchange of legal currency and tokens." It even goes so far as to ban platforms from "provid[ing] pricing, information, [and] intermediary services."

Adam Efrima, the operations director of trading platform eToro in China, described the ruling as a "huge deal," saying: "It's bigger than most people think it is."

Efrima, who first alerted Business Insider to the far reaching nature of the PBoC ruling, said: "I don't think the Chinese government are against blockchain and high-level blockchain development, I think what they're trying to do is take down scammers."

But he added: "Cryptocurrency related exchanging and trading activities are officially forbidden. If you interpret the law literally then you cannot engage in any crypto exchange — crypto-to-crypto or crypto-to-fiat."

"What we're seeing in the market is a lot of Chinese people in the market getting scared," he said.

He said he now expects a regional crackdown on Chinese operators as municipalities follow the PBoC's lead and issue bylaws.

Commenting on the effects the law could have on the global ICO market, Efrima said: "It's huge. There's not a quality project that's not doing a road show in China right now. An educated guess is that this will be very, very negative."

But he added: "In the long run, it might be good as there'll be less projects and less scams and that could support the price of Ethereum."

Separately on Monday South Korea also announced a crackdown on digital currencies. Business Korea reports that a government task force on Sunday concluded that "digital currencies cannot be considered money and currency, nor financial products," and pledged to "strengthen levels of punishment," for ICOs.

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