Chinese crypto regulations: What's legal, banned, and how people still trade

When you hear Chinese crypto regulations, the strict government controls on cryptocurrency trading and exchanges in China. Also known as China's crypto ban, it doesn't mean you can't own Bitcoin or Ethereum—it means you can't trade them on local platforms. The People's Bank of China shut down all domestic crypto exchanges in 2021, and since then, banks and payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay have been forbidden from processing crypto transactions. But here’s the twist: millions of Chinese citizens still buy and hold crypto. How? They don’t use exchanges. They use P2P crypto China, peer-to-peer trading networks where individuals directly swap fiat for crypto—often through Telegram groups, WhatsApp, or apps like LocalBitcoins and Paxful.

Why does this matter? Because crypto fiat onramp China, the legal pathways to turn Chinese yuan into cryptocurrency are limited to these unofficial channels. You won’t find Binance or OKX operating openly inside China, but you’ll find traders in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu meeting in cafes to exchange cash for USDT. Some use gift cards, others use bank transfers to trusted contacts. It’s not perfect—there’s risk, scams, and occasional arrests—but it works. The government doesn’t ban holding crypto, only commercial trading platforms and financial institutions from facilitating it. So if you’re a Chinese citizen, you can legally own Bitcoin. You just can’t buy it from a Chinese app.

The crackdown also hit mining hard. In 2021, China banned Bitcoin mining, forcing 70% of the global hash rate offline overnight. Many miners moved to Kazakhstan, the U.S., and Nigeria. But mining didn’t disappear—it just went underground. Small-scale miners still run rigs in basements and warehouses, often powered by cheap, off-grid electricity. Meanwhile, the state is quietly building its own digital currency, the e-CNY, which gives the government full control over every transaction. That’s the real goal: not to kill crypto, but to replace it with something they can monitor and tax.

What you’ll find below are real stories from people navigating this system. You’ll see how traders avoid detection, what platforms still work (and which are scams), and why some Chinese users are turning to offshore wallets and hardware devices to keep their assets safe. There’s no official guide, no government handbook—just trial, error, and adaptation. These posts don’t tell you how to break the law. They show you how people are working within the cracks.