Economist: China has NOT Banned Cryptcurrencies

In early December China’s central bank declared that Bitcoin was not a currency. This slowed its rise, but enthusiasts remained unbowed as the declaration fell far short of the outright ban some had feared. Then regulators forbade the firms that act as middlemen between businesses and credit-card networks from working with the exchanges. That was a more serious blow, but exchange operators found ways round the ban (for example, by using related companies to deal with the payment processors).

Rumours now suggest that the central bank has instructed commercial banks to halt all dealings with cyber-exchanges by April 15th. Such a move would be even more harmful to Bitcoin, says Zennon Kapron of Kapronasia, a local expert on the topic. As in most places, Bitcoin has not taken off as a means of payment in China; instead, it is mainly a speculative investment. But the steady drip of new rules makes it ever harder for ordinary Chinese to invest.

Still, one venture capitalist keen on crypto-currencies predicts “some workaround is likely”. If banks are forbidden to hold corporate accounts for exchanges, one insider whispers that personal bank accounts of senior executives could be used instead. OKCoin, another Chinese exchange, insists it has an emergency plan involving an “overseas version”.

It is too early to declare Bitcoin dead in China. On March 21st the central bank clarified that it was not banning trading in crypto-currencies.

link.