Is virtual currency illegal in China

It is illegal to buy and sell digital currency in China

according to the announcement on preventing the financing risk of token issuance jointly issued by the central bank and other seven ministries and commissions, the announcement points out that any so-called token financing trading platform shall not engage in the exchange business between legal currency and token and "virtual currency", and shall not buy or sell tokens or "virtual currency" as the central counterparties, It is not allowed to provide pricing, information intermediary and other services for token or "virtual currency"

the announcement points out that token issuance financing refers to the so-called "virtual currency" raised from investors through illegal sale and circulation of tokens. In essence, it is an unauthorized illegal public financing behavior, suspected of illegal sale of token tickets, illegal issuance of securities, illegal fund-raising, financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal and criminal activities

extended information:

the central bank said that the so-called "digital currency" in the market is not legal digital currency:

the central bank's monetary Bureau issued a "risk warning on issuing or promoting digital currency in the name of the people's Bank of China" on its official website, saying that recently, indivial enterprises falsely use the name of the central bank, The relevant digital procts are labeled as "authorized issuance by the people's Bank of China", or the central bank's digital currency promotion team is falsely claimed, in an attempt to deceive the public and take the opportunity to make huge profits

the central bank said that the central bank has not issued legal digital currency, nor authorized any institutions and enterprises to issue legal digital currency, and there is no promotion team. At present, the so-called "digital currency" in the market is not legal digital currency. The central bank also suggested that the so-called "digital currency" launched by some institutions and enterprises and the so-called promotion of the central bank's issuance of digital currency may involve pyramid selling and fraud

in fact, virtual currencies such as bitcoin and lightcoin are representatives of the so-called digital currency. The central bank said in 2016 that it was studying China's legal digital currency. Yao Qian, director of the digital currency Research Institute of the people's Bank of China, previously told the media that the prototype scheme for the central bank to issue legal digital currency has completed two rounds of revision, and is expected to be tested in relatively closed application scenarios such as the bill market in the future, but there is no clear timetable for its launch