No, China didn’t ban crypto again
As C.H. Spurgeon famously said, “a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” Early Sunday morning, Beijing time, that very thing happened. Wild rumors, apparently starting on Telegram and filtered through Elon Musk’s X, began to surface that China had implemented yet another ban on crypto and Bitcoin.
Eventually, these rumors made it to major accounts with millions of followers, including FirstSquawk, PolyMarket, Kalshi, and Unusual Whales, who all reported it without any sourcing.
The problem? It’s fake news.
This “breaking news” isn’t new to anyone who’s been involved in crypto since 2016 — 2021 because almost every single year someone suggests that China has, yet again, banned it.
There have actually been specific bans implemented on cryptocurrencies in China: in 2021 the National Development and Reform Commission pushed for crypto mining activities to cease, though older mining farms were allowed to continue to conduct business for a period while operations were wound down.
This ban was instituted because the Chinese Communist Party determined that mining was “high energy consumption and a low efficiency activity,” and has largely been effective.
Additionally, in 2024, the People’s Bank of China issued a notice stating that cryptocurrencies weren’t legal tender and that citizens were prohibited from issuing or exchanging tokens.
This law has been less effective, as buying, selling, and trading crypto on the Mainland is still quite common.
Read more: China hypes its CBDC as tariff war threatens yuan
Bureaucracies don’t pass needless laws on weekends
The first clue to the inaccuracy of the rumors swirling around a supposed China ban was the timing of the breaking news: very early on a Sunday morning in Beijing.
Unless there’s an emergency, it’s safe to assume that any bureaucracy, China or otherwise, won’t be passing legislation on weekends.
Xi Jinping, it appears, didn’t call the National People’s Congress in to have an emergency session on early Sunday to ban crypto again.
Secondly, the supposed ban wasn’t reported by any major Chinese news outlets, including, but not limited to Xinhua, CCTV2, or China Daily. Even English-translated Chinese news sources like the South China Morning Post and Global Times didn’t have any ban to report.
Regardless, the fact remains that when it comes to unsourced rumors being spread by large accounts that earn incomes from engagement on social media websites like X always take it with a grain of salt and confirm with sources on the ground or verified news sources.
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