Beijing Arbitration Commission Says China Didn’t Ban BTC Entirely

The Beijing Arbitration Commission said that actually China didn’t ban BTC entirely since Bitcoin-related activities are not prohibited by the government of China as we are reading more about the report in the best cryptocurrency news sites today.

China is one of the places in the world with the most strict crypto jurisdictions and regulations as it has not completely banned Bitcoin according to the Beijing Arbitration Commission, which is a non-profit arbitration organization. According to a report by the BAC Commission, China’s ban on bitcoin is more nuanced than some have actually believed and suggested. In the report, the BAC clarified that China’s legal stance on crypto-assets such as Bitcoin is not prohibited by the government. According to the BAC, China only prohibits token fundings and trading platforms from engaging with exchanges in legal tender and virtual currency or tokens.

The Commission then stated that the same law that bans cryptocurrency as money, recognized it as a virtual commodity. The existing laws according to BAC are not quite specific to regulate Bitcoin as virtual property. The General Principles of Civil Laws don’t make specific provisions on the extension and connotation of the virtual property but only stipulate that the protection of virtual property has to be stipulated by law and the specific measures of virtual property are “entrusted to other laws.” The country has no laws on Bitcoin so it cannot be recognized as a virtual property:

“In summary, the state does not prohibit Bitcoin’s activities as virtual commodities, except for the activities that Bitcoin is engaged in as legal tender.”

Since Bitcoin doesn’t constitute money in China, the government has not approved BTC as a legal tender and it is also not used as an alternative to the legal tender or fiat currencies so it should not be associated with illegal transactions:

 “The prohibited transactions include those when Bitcoin is used as a currency. If Bitcoin does not engage in activities as a currency, it is not a transaction prohibited by the state. For example, in the equity transfer contract dispute decided by the Shenzhen International Arbitration Court, the two parties agreed on the return of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is only used as a general property. Therefore, the transaction does not violate relevant national regulations and should be valid.”

China emerged as one of the most strict countries in regards to crypto regulation on local crypto exchanges back in 2017 as the biggest exchange Binance originally moved from the country to Malta where there are more friendly regulations towards crypto and blockchain.