China’s five-year digital development plan calls for wider blockchain use in trade and manufacturing alongside stronger technical standards. China has set a 2030 target for largely completing a national blockchain network under a five-year digital development plan published Friday. The 15th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization, which sets priorities calls for deeper blockchain use in trade and finance in the Yangtze River Delta, and deployment at scale in manufacturing and agriculture in the Chengdu–Chongqing region in southwestern China. Friday’s plan was issued by the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a senior body within the ruling Communist Party that coordinates digital development policy.
Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia. The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.
Unique wallets sending P2P stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026 as crypto activity increasingly shifted toward direct wallet-to-wallet transfers. The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.
Singapore’s crypto economy grows 55%, South Korea set to make crypto market makers legal, and Chinese spy ministry warns would-be foreign spies it’s watching the blockchain. CHINA China’s Ministry of State Security has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous. According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage.
The newly authorized lenders will begin offering e-CNY services after completing operational and technical preparations. China’s central bank has added eight banks to its digital yuan network, bringing the number of e-CNY operating institutions to 30. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Hangzhou, Huishang Bank, Bank of Changsha and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank, according to a Xinhua report published Monday on the government’s website. The banks will be connected to the PBOC’s digital yuan system and begin offering services after completing operational and technical preparations.
Gold and US stocks stole the limelight on Wednesday as Bitcoin failed to gain significantly beyond $64,000. Bitcoin stayed wedged at $64,000 on Wednesday’s Wall Street open as gold hit six-week highs. Key points: Data from TradingView showed continued BTC price inertia contrasting with upside for both precious metals and US equities.
Retail users in Vietnam who trade on offshore crypto exchanges like Binance or OKX face heavy penalties. Network School controversy in Malaysia over Israeli citizen ban. Vietnam will fine retail crypto users up to $1900 if they trade on unlicensed overseas platforms such as Binance, OKX and Bybit, instead of on licensed local exchanges. There’s just one problem: Vietnam’s Finance Ministry has yet to issue any exchange licenses for its regulated digital asset market which is due to start on September 1. Five exchanges have been approved in principle however. Domestic investors who trade crypto that’s been designated exclusively for foreign investors can be fined up to $3800. Crypto companies providing or advertising services without a license, those who fail to properly ID customers, or unl…
A senior PBOC official called for closer monitoring, stronger regulation and international coordination as stablecoins gain importance in global payments. China’s central bank is paying closer attention to stablecoins as privately issued digital currencies take on a potentially larger role in the international monetary system and cross-border payments. Wang Xin, director general of the Research Bureau at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), urged authorities to closely monitor the impact of stablecoins while improving international coordination and regulation, Chinese news outlet The Paper reported on Wednesday. “We also need to pay attention to several new areas, such as whether stablecoins will play a more important role in cross-border payments, and how regulation, international coordinat…
The Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act in May, but it must still pass both chambers of Congress before heading to the president's desk. The United States will lose its leadership position in crypto to other countries, including China, if US lawmakers fail to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), a crypto market structure bill, according to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis. Passing a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework would “ensure” that other countries “do not write the rules of the next financial era,” Lummis said. She added in a separate X post: In May, the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the CLARITY Act after the legislation had stalled for months, reviving crypto industry hopes that the bill might be codified into law in 2026.
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
The Bitcoin network's mining difficulty dropped by as much as 27% within a single adjustment period during China's 2021 crypto mining ban. Update (2-7-2026) This article has been updated to provide the latest projections for the next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustment The Bitcoin network mining difficulty, a metric tracking the relative challenge of adding new blocks to the Bitcoin (BTC) ledger, fell by about 11.16% in the last 24 hours, the worst drop in a single adjustment period since China’s 2021 ban on crypto mining. Bitcoin mining difficulty is at 125.86 T and took effect at block 935,429, data from CoinWarz shows. The average block time is about 9.47 minutes, slightly under the 10-minute target.
The latest announcement from the People's Bank of China follows months of flip-flopping on privately issued yuan-pegged stablecoins. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, and seven Chinese regulatory agencies published a joint statement on Friday banning the unapproved issuance of Renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). The ban applies to both domestic and foreign stablecoin and tokenized RWA issuers, according to the statement, which was also signed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China’s Securities Regulatory Commission. A translation of the announcement said: Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at New York University (NYU) Law School and former Managing Director of CIC, China's sovereign wealth fund, told Coint…
The US president said he supported the GENIUS Act because it was "politically popular,” but added the main reason was in response to China. US President Donald Trump used part of his speech addressing the crowd at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday to discuss the motivations behind his crypto policies, saying China’s regulatory landscape was a factor. In a Wednesday speech at the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said he supported the signing of the payment stablecoin-focused legislation, the GENIUS Act, in July because it was “politically good” and “China wanted that market, too.” “[I]t is politically popular,” said Trump on crypto. “But it’s, much more importantly, we have to make it so that China doesn’t get the hold of it. And once they have that hold, we’re…
China’s move to pay interest on the digital yuan is colliding with the GENIUS Act’s ban on stablecoin yields, intensifying questions over whether US digital dollars can remain competitive. China’s move to let banks pay interest on digital yuan wallets from Jan. 1 is sharpening the debate in Washington over whether United States dollar stablecoins are being left structurally uncompetitive by the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act’s ban on yields. The move allows China’s commercial banks to pay interest on balances held in e‑CNY wallets, with officials framing it as a way to better integrate the central bank digital currency (CBDC) into bank balance sheets. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong warned in an X post on Wednesday that the decision gives China…
“China’s Ethereum” co-founders clash on New Year’s Eve over Neo’s treasury, major Asian economies warm up to Bitcoin ETFs. Asia Express Neo co-founders Erik Zhang and Da Hongfei clashed on New Years Eve in a heated public exchange, accusing each other of mismanaging the blockchains treasury and misrepresenting years of internal governance decisions. Neo is a long-running smart contract network founded in 2014 that rose to prominence during the 2017 bull market, when it was widely dubbed Chinas Ethereum. The nickname reflected its early focus on smart contracts and regulatory-friendly design, similar in ambition to Ethereum but marketed as a domestic alternative for Chinas tech ecosystem. Zhang said he originally stepped away from Neo leadership after Da argued that joint oversight of the f…
