Despite having a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies, many investors in mainland China were able to earn significant profits, making them achieve some of the biggest gains in the global cryptocurrency market. The analysis was done by a New York-based blockchain research firm called Chainalysis and reported by SCMP.
A new survey indicates that Chinese cryptocurrency investors earned US$ 1.15 billion in profits during 2023, making themselves the fourth biggest cryptocurrency earners, behind those in the USA, UK, and Vietnam. One of the exchanges that allowed trading in China was Binance, though users were warned for such activity as China banned cryptocurrency trading.
The recent price surge in Bitcoin also gained attention of the Chinese-based investors in the mainland. In Hong Kong, the investors made a profit of $250 million in 2023 and made US$ 1.3 billion in 2021.
Globally, all investors made a gain of US$ 37.6 billion in 2023, which was down from US$ 159.7 billion in 2021 and 127.1 billion in 2022. During this time, US-based investors made gains of US$ 47 billion and $9 billion.
Going by the records, it's clear that cryptocurrency is booming in China despite China's stance against it. According to the source, this prompted Beijing to put up a new warning via its state media, emphasizing that the recent rise in Bitcoin prices cannot hide its underlying risks. Beijing has the opposite goal in Hong Kong as it plans to make the city the hub for cryptocurrencies by giving licenses for trading.
