Media: China weighs avenues for prosecuting crypto trading and mining

Leading agencies in China have begun examining legal norms to be considered by courts and to hand down verdicts in cases related to cryptocurrency trading and mining, according to Caijing Magazine, citing its own sources.

They say an interpretation of how the current rules apply to such cases will be published soon.

On September 24, the People’s Bank of China together with nine agencies issued a statement, in which it classified cryptocurrency operations as illegal financial activities.

Experts noted that, for the first time among the signatories, were the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security.

Earlier, media reported that more than twenty crypto companies announced their withdrawal from the Chinese market amid a new wave of repression against the industry.

One of them was the Bitcoin exchange Huobi. The platform has ceased registering new users from mainland China and said that by December 31 it would delete all existing accounts held by residents of the country.

Caijing Magazine sources confirmed Bloomberg reports that the decision to wind down operations in China was taken by the exchange’s management before the tightening of regulation. However, the central bank’s statement affected the timing of its implementation.

Initially, Huobi planned to complete the liquidation of Chinese user accounts by June 30, 2022, according to the publication’s sources.

Co-founder Li Lin said the decision to leave China was motivated by family concerns and mentioned a months-long investigation into him.

Earlier in July, a crypto-focused seminar for judges and law enforcement was held in China.