Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

On Aug. 11, a Chinese individual known only as Mr. Chen was sentenced to nine months in prison after helping his friend, Mr. Lin, purchase 94,988 Chinese yuan ($13,104) worth of Tether (USDT) and earning a commission of 147.1 Yuan ($20.24).

Because Mr. Chen shared his personal bank information for the peer-to-peer fiat-to-crypto transaction, Chinese authorities considered the act to be money laundering and imposed a harsh sentence.

Officially, Chinese authorities attribute the tough-on-crypto approach to a spree of data theft and the use of crypto to launder proceeds of crime. However, sources tell Cointelegraph that the crackdown is more related to the country’s stringent capital control rules, where Chinese nationals are prohibited from buying more than $50,000 worth of foreign currencies each year without a state permit. The same applies to large-sum Chinese yuan transactions with foreign banks.

The capital controls had been almost complete until the advent of crypto, sources say. The problem is further exasperated by a looming recession in China, making senior government officials wary of further money moving out of the country.

In July, Jingmen municipal police were tipped off about an online poker platform operating in the city. Raiding the offices, police discovered the group had “laundered” over 400 billion Chinese yuan ($54.93 billion) worth of gambling funds using cryptocurrencies and involving over 50,000 individuals.

However, the underlying criminal act that resulted in the “tainted money” was never mentioned. Unlike other jurisdictions, the act of gambling itself and the transfer of currencies abroad without applicable permits are deemed to be illicit activities. According to user reports, fiat-to-crypto transactions stemming as far back as 2021 are currently being audited by “special police task forces.”

Crypto projects and their Chinese founders are also disappearing at an alarming rate. The well-known Multichain incident aside, in May, employees of Chinese offshore yuan stablecoin issuer CNHC were detained by police following an office raid. They have not been heard from since. Commenting on the story, Wuwei Liang, a former employee of defunct crypto exchange CoinXP, claimed:

“Suddenly, despite there being no complainants nor victims, the Wuxi police who came to Beijing from across the province took away all the members of the CoinXP team of China’s domestic blockchain entrepreneurial team.”

Liang further alleged that Chinese police would resort to “intimidation” to force a confession and the surrender of a project’s private key. Armed with this as “evidence” police then charge the co-founder with “fraud and multilevel marketing,” bringing about a sham trial where the accused is convicted, resulting in the seizure of enterprise and user funds alike. (These allegations have not been proven in court.) We reported earlier on allegations of intimidation, detention, and even suggestions of the “kidnapping” of the defense counsel at the ongoing CoinXP trial.

CBDC printer goes brrrr

Don’t misinterpret the Chinese government, however; they are quite fond of blockchain, so long as they are the ones in charge.

In the interest of revitalizing China’s ailing economy via consumer spending, government officials have recognized the role of the Chinese yuan central bank digital currency and made its adoption a political priority. On July 27, the city of Suqian airdropped 20 million ($2.75 million) of digital yuan shopping vouchers to residents.

This was followed by a 10 million ($1.37 million) digital yuan food voucher airdrop by the city of Hangzhou, a 40 million ($5.49 million) digital yuan airdrop by the city of Shaoxing, a 30 million ($4.12 million) digital yuan airdrop by the city of Jianyang, and a 3 million ($0.412 million) digital yuan airdrop by the city of Ningbo, all within less than two weeks. At one test site in Chengdu, China’s largest food delivery platform, Meituan, reported a 65.5% daily increase in the number of digital yuan transactions on its platform.

So there are definitely real-world results to help revitalize the economy — something desperately needed right now. On Aug. 15, China…