Huobi stops new crypto sign-ups in China amid ban
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BEIJING • Huobi, China's largest Bitcoin exchange, has halted new registrations for domestic users, taking one of the first actions to comply with Beijing's latest crypto ban.
The exchange operator has stopped letting traders use mainland China mobile numbers to register new accounts, after the People's Bank of China said on Friday that all crypto-related transactions will be considered illicit financial activity.
New sign-ups are still available for Hong Kong users, but mainland China is no longer an option for new account creation.
China's latest pronouncement - issued by the central bank along with nine other government agencies, including the public security ministry - is the culmination of years of attempted crackdown on the rise of Bitcoin and its peers. Friday's notice called out offshore exchanges targeting Chinese users, banning them from hiring locally for roles including in marketing, payment settlement and technology.
In 2017, China told local exchanges to stop hosting trades between fiat money and crypto tokens, spurring companies like Huobi to set up shop in friendlier jurisdictions like Singapore and Malta for their main trading platforms. Still, Huobi offers Chinese users services like over-the-counter trading and crypto-to-crypto transactions.
In June, Huobi banned existing Chinese users from trading riskier products like derivatives, after China's Cabinet called for a renewed crackdown on crypto trading and mining. There is no indication that Chinese users are barred from Huobi altogether.
Huobi, founded in 2013 in Beijing, is widely regarded as one of the "Big Three" crypto exchanges originating in China, along with OKEx and Binance.
BLOOMBERG