China Continues To Tighten The Rope On Chinese Crypto Entrepreneurs

Chinese regulators are "cleaning up" the domestic crypto market, as at least five local exchange platforms halted operations until further notice. Regulators issued several notices and warnings regarding crypto trading.

The news comes despite China's President Xi Jinping's assurance his government would boost the development of blockchain technology.

One of the leading social media platforms in China, Weibo, already shut down all accounts linked to Binance and TRON.

The actions from last week are the biggest crackdown on crypto regulations since the ICO ban in 2017. And while fiat-to-crypto exchanges are still officially banned, the over-the-counter (OTC) sector is thriving, and people are reverting to crypto-to-crypto actions, with Tether as a gateway for entering the crypto world.

The pressure also would affect Bitcoin's shaky price from last week. The world's #1 crypto tumbled with almost $1,000 in price in a matter of a week, despite its 6% rebound from Wednesday. The crackdown could lead to massive investor insecurity in the Asia-Pacific market, which accounts for over 40% of the total bitcoin transactions in the first half of 2019.

Two more Chinese crypto-related exchange operators stated they shut down operations - the Bitsoda and Akdex trading platforms. And while Chinese crypto companies are slowly fleeing the regulatory havoc, users are more interested in protecting the crypto assets they possess. Crypto holders are transferring their exchange-based crypto assets into both hardware and software wallets. One of the largest Chinese wallet apps, ImToken, reported a rapid increase in their Tether transactions. People use Tether as a haven for cryptocurrency value, as Tether is tied to a fiat currency like the U.S. Dollar.

One of the most influential names in Asia's crypto space - TRON's founder Justin Sun, brightened up the situation by stating that despite the regulatory crackdown, the current market state in China is still very positive. "If we look at the situation in the short-term, however, we expected much more progress than now," Sun added.