- Chinese investors are betting heavily on crypto despite a ban.
- China’s crypto market transaction volume runs into billions.
- The investors leverage “grey-market dealers” to buy crypto.
In defiance of a crypto ban, Chinese investors are turning to the digital assets market to escape the economic downturn plaguing traditional investments, such as stocks.
Investors in mainland China have designed various ingenious ways of entering the nascent industry, including using cards issued by small rural commercial banks to buy digital assets from “grey-market dealers.” This has fueled a thriving underground crypto industry with billions of dollars in raw transaction volumes.
Chinese Crypto Market Trading Volume Hits $86.4B
According to a Reuters report dated January 25, despite being banned, the Chinese crypto market recorded about $86.4 billion in raw transaction volume within one year, shadowing Hong Kong’s $64 billion crypto trading volume within the same period.
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While the report noted that most of this activity happened via over-the-counter crypto shops or through informal, “grey-market peer-to-peer businesses,” it implied that exchanges, such as OKX and Binance, still offered trading services for Chinese investors.
The exchanges allegedly guide the investors “to use fintech platforms such as Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay,” enabling them to convert the local yuan into stablecoins with dealers or trade cryptocurrencies.
A buy-side equity analyst who spoke to the media outlet said the underground crypto market thrived due to a “crucial” economic transition.
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“It is hard to find opportunities in traditional fields. Chinese stocks and other assets perform poorly ... the economy is undergoing a crucial transition,” the analyst stated.
China’s stock market benchmark, the CSI 300 Index, is down by half its value since early 2021.
Read how Chinese officials are allegedly involved in crypto bribes:
Chinese Officials Take Cold Wallet Bribes Despite Crypto Ban
Stay updated on the Chinese intelligence bribing scandal:
U.S. Official Allegedly Bribed with Bitcoin by Chinese Intelligence
