Major crypto exchanges stopped letting Chinese users sign up

September 28, 2021: -Huobi, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said it had ceased new account openings for mainland Chinese users after Beijing renewed a crackdown on virtual currencies.

The People’s Bank of China releasing all virtual currency-related activities illegal, including trading on Friday. The Chinese central bank also aimed at overseas exchanges providing services to mainland China users.

Huobi, one of these exchanges, said that it would end account registrations for new mainland Chinese users. The company will gradually retire existing accounts of mainland Chinese users by midnight on December 31, 2021.

Although, Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said that account registrations using Chinese mobile phone numbers are blocked. The Binance app is also no longer available for download in China.

“Binance takes its compliance obligations and is committed to following local regulator requirements wherever we operate,” a spokesperson told CNBC.

This year, Chinese authorities have intensified a crackdown on cryptocurrencies that have targeted bitcoin miners and trading.

But tough stance on cryptocurrencies is not new in China. Authorities in the world’s second-largest economy have long been worried about the impact of digital coins on financial stability.

In 2017, China closed local cryptocurrency exchanges and banned so-called initial coin offerings to introduce money for crypto companies by issuing digital tokens.

Many cryptocurrency exchanges of China moved offshore as a result of that. But loopholes have remained that allows mainland Chinese traders to buy and sell digital currencies on these offshore exchanges.