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Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi stop taking Chinese users as Beijing intensify crackdown on cryptocurrency trading

September 26, 2021 2:41 pm

Huobi, one of the China’s largest bitcoin exchanges have suspended new registrations for mainland Chinese users following the country regulators’ announcement of tougher restriction on cryptocurrencies trading.

Detail:

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi have stopped letting mainland Chinese to register new accounts but new registrations are still available for Hong Kong users.

“The exchange began to react and the regulatory pressure in China this time may be very high,” Chinese crypto influencer Colin Wu said on Twitter.

Last week, China intensified a crackdown on cryptocurrencies after the country’s most powerful regulators, including the central bank, financial, securities and foreign exchange regulators, said they will work together to root out all crypto-related transactions that are considered to be illegal financial activity.

The announcement of Chinese regulators is the country’s latest efforts to crackdown cryptocurrency trading after Beijing banned banks and financial institutions from offering crypto-related service to users and asking them to cut payment links.

In addition to Huobi, Crypto derivatives exchange FTX recently announced that it moved its headquarters to the Bahamas from Hong Kong. 

Context:

Huobi, China’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume after Binance, continually downsized its businesses to comply with China’s crypto crackdown and new regulations.

In May, Huobi has suspended bitcoin mining service and sales of mining equipment in mainland China.

Then, in June, the cryptocurrency exchange halted crypto derivative trading service for users in China.

Huobi had experienced waves of cryptocurrency crackdown before the latest one starting from May this year.

In 2017, Beijing told multiple local exchanges including Huobi to stop transactions between fiat currency and cryptocurrency. At that time, Huobi said it would stop trading cryptocurrencies following the government’s ban.

Beijing’s previous crackdown on cryptocurrency had forced many exchanges to move abroad, some of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges including the country’s top 3 exchange- Huobi, Binance and Okex.