Bitcoin Is Property, Chinese Court Rules — No Crypto Ban Contradiction

Last week, Bitcoin (BTC) was legally recognized by a Chinese court, whereby it was concluded that the cryptocurrency should now be considered as digital property. The decision that the Hangzhou Internet Court made in a ruling was met with enthusiasm from some community members, who assumed that Bitcoin is now legal in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — famously one of the harshest jurisdictions for digital currencies in the world — and that the local government might soon ease its pressure on Bitcoin. However, some experts are less confident to call it a regulatory thaw. 

Brief introduction to China’s relationship with crypto

China is a key player in the crypto space, hosting a substantial share of Bitcoin mining and trading. According to a late 2018 study, around 60% of BTC’s total hash power is generated in China, while unregulated domestic cryptocurrency exchanges facilitate 60% of all global trading of the stablecoin Tether (USDT), as another study…