China’s virtual coin fundraising ban just the start of tighter regulations

BEIJING: China is poised to further tighten rules on virtual currencies after regulators on Monday banned virtual coin fundraising schemes, Chinese financial news outlet Yicai reported citing sources.

China banned and deemed illegal the practice of raising funds through launches of token-based digital currencies, targeting so-called initial coin offerings (ICO) in a market that has exploded since the start of the year.

Yicai’s report on late Monday cited a source close to decision-makers as saying the announcement on the ban was just the start of further follow-up regulations of virtual currencies.

In total, US$2.32bil has been raised through ICOs globally, with US$2.16bil of that being raised since the start of 2017, according to cryptocurrency analysis website Cryptocompare.

The rapid ascent of ICOs prompted the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to warn in July that some ICOs should be regulated like other securities. Singapore and Canada followed with similar warnings.

Bitcoin rival Ethereum, which token-issuers usually ask to be paid in and which has seen dramatic growth this year, fell sharply on the news. It was down almost 20% on Monday and fell a further 5% yesterday, according to trade publication Coindesk.

Bitcoin was also down another 4.6% yesterday after falling 8% on Monday.

Major virtual currency trading platforms BTCC and Huobi had no comment on the ICO ban when contacted by Reuters.

Chinese ICO platform ICOINFO ( www.ico. info) said in a notice yesterday that it has stopped all ICO services and is working with groups that issued virtual tokens on its platform to return funds to investors. ICOINFO said several projects had already returned funds to investors’ accounts and that users would be able to begin withdrawing funds from the platform at 10:00 am local time Tuesday.

Another Chinese exchange, Binance, said in a statement on its website that it is “working around the clock on a solution that will fully satisfy the new regulations in China”.

However, it was looking at “preserving and enhancing features that are valuable to our western community, which accounts for more than 81% of our user base,” the statement said.