China’s Supreme People’s Court plans to study adjudication rules for crypto and AI cases while the country’s crypto ban remains in force. China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said it will study new adjudication rules for virtual currency and cross-border finance cases as part of a broader push to clarify how courts handle digital economy disputes. “We will conduct in-depth research on the adjudication rules for new cases such as virtual currencies and cross-border finance, formulate judicial interpretations on civil compensation involving insider trading and market manipulation as soon as possible,” said Liu Guixiang, Judicial Committee member of the SPC, during a press conference, reported Chinese news outlet Yicai on Wednesday. The court also plans to study judicial protection rules for artificial intelligence cases and data property rights, including disputes involving data ownership, data transactions and AI-generated content. Read more
China’s new online marketing rules tighten an already sweeping crypto ban and place fresh pressure on financial influencers, echoing parallel crackdowns in Europe, Australia and the UK. China’s central bank and seven other regulators have finalized the “Administrative Measures for Online Marketing of Financial Products” (Announcement No. 9), dated April 21 and publicly released on April 24. The rules take effect on Sept. 30, 2026, and confine online marketing of financial products to licensed financial institutions and lawfully entrusted third-party platforms, and prohibit any organization or individual from offering online marketing services or any other form of assistance that facilitates illegal financial activities. The text explicitly folds virtual currency issuance and trading, along with illegal foreign exchange margin business, into the definition of illegal financial activity, reinforcing a stance first made explicit when the People’s Bank of China declared all crypto transactions illegal in 2021. Re...
Circle’s Jeremy Allaire sees “tremendous” room for a yuan stablecoin, despite China banning most private yuan tokens and pushing its CBDC to challenge US dollar stablecoins. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says there is “tremendous opportunity” for a yuan-backed stablecoin, despite Beijing’s formal moves against most private renminbi-linked stablecoins and commitment to its own digital yuan. Speaking to Reuters in Hong Kong on Thursday, Allaire framed stablecoins as a way for China to “export” its currency by making global payments easier, as digital money becomes more tightly woven into trade and finance, and said the country could roll out a yuan-backed stablecoin within three to five years. Geopolitical rivalry over money is increasingly being waged in code as much as in central bank policy, and Allaire’s comments sharpen a deeper question: Can governments that clamp down on private digital currencies afford to shun them if they want to compete globally? Read more
Bitchat launched in July last year and has been used during protests in Madagascar, Uganda, Nepal, Indonesia and Iran as authorities attempted to restrict usage of the internet. Bitchat, a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app developed by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, has been removed from Apple’s App Store in China for allegedly violating its internet service regulations. In an X post on Sunday, Dorsey shared a screenshot from Apple’s app review team informing him that Bitchat had been removed from the App Store in February and that the TestFlight beta version would no longer be available in China at the request of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). “Bitchat pulled from the China App Store,” he said. Read more
MetaComp’s Pre-A+ funding round, backed by Alibaba and Spark Venture, brings the total capital raised to $35 million, with aims to expand its StableX Network globally. Singapore-based MetaComp said Friday it completed a new funding round backed by Alibaba, as the company expands its stablecoin payment infrastructure. MetaComp completed a Pre-A+ round backed by Alibaba, bringing the cumulative total to $35 million across two rounds in three months, according to the announcement. The latest round also featured the European early-stage venture capital investor Spark Venture, with Beijing-based 100Summit Partners serving as exclusive financial adviser. Read more