China Crypto Clampdown Now Includes ICO, Other Fundraising

China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency took another turn on Thursday as the country’s Supreme Court declared it illegal to use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as a means for fundraising.

This revision to the country’s judicial interpretation for illegal fundraising is the first time that China has included virtual currency transactions. With this being the case, all activity and behavior related to the absorption of funds through virtual currency will be punished.

The aim of this new policy change is to mitigate the risks associated with digital currency fundraising and the absorption of funds from the public. The new law will come into effect on March 1, 2022.

According to local media, the revision also improved upon the conviction and punishment of all illegal fundraising crimes. Appended to the four existing characteristics of the law, it added online lending, digital currency transactions, crime, financial leasing, as well as a few others to the revised list.

China’s strict policy on cryptocurrency is nothing new, as the country has already announced over a dozen bans relating to a variety of cryptocurrency activities in the past several years. The most recent being in 2021, when a committee of top regulators issued a blanket ban on all activities related to cryptocurrencies.

These new guidelines have declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal in mainland China and have prohibited foreign cryptocurrency exchanges from offering any of the services available on their platform. State regulators have continued to implement more policies since then to completely eradicate the majority of cryptocurrency mining and trading from the country.