Legal provisions on cracking down on virtual currency

On June 28, 2009, the Ministry of culture and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "notice on strengthening the management of virtual currency in online games", which made it clear that virtual currency is expressed in the form of prepaid recharge card, prepaid amount or points of online games, but does not include game props obtained in game activities; Virtual currency shall not be used to pay for, purchase physical procts or exchange for any procts and services of other enterprises< The following is the full text of the Circular of the Ministry of culture and the Ministry of Commerce:
the Circular of the Ministry of culture and the Ministry of Commerce on strengthening the management of virtual currency in online games
the cultural departments (bureaus) and commercial departments (bureaus) of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, the Cultural Bureau and commercial bureau of Xinjiang proction and Construction Corps, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Cultural market administrative law enforcement corps:
with the rapid development of online games, online game virtual currency is widely used in online game business services. The virtual currency of online games not only promotes the development of online game instry, but also brings new economic and social problems. Mainly reflected in: first, the lack of protection of user rights and interests; Second, market behavior lacks supervision; Third, the online game virtual currency in the use of disputes
in order to standardize the operation order of online game market, according to the spirit of Interim Provisions on Internet culture management, notice on Further Strengthening the management of Internet cafes and online games (Wen Shi Fa [2007] No. 10) and notice on standardizing the operation order of online games and banning the use of online game gambling (Gong Tong Zi [2007] No. 3), etc, With the consent of the people's Bank of China and other departments, the notice on strengthening the management of virtual currency of online games is as follows

Some virtual currencies are illegal in China. Chinese laws prohibit virtual currencies. The only legal currency in China is RMB. Since the people's Republic of China issued RMB, it has lasted 71 years. With the development of economic construction and the needs of people's life, it has graally improved and improved. So far, it has issued five sets of RMB, forming a multi variety and multi series monetary system of paper money and metal money, ordinary commemorative money and precious metal commemorative money

except for 1,2,5 fen coins, the first, second and third sets of RMB have been withdrawn from circulation, and the fourth set of RMB has been suspended from circulation since May 1, 2018 (except 1 jiao, 5 jiao notes and 5 jiao, 1 yuan coins). The current circulation of RMB is mainly the fifth set of RMB issued in 1999

the people's Bank of China is scheled to issue the fifth set of RMB 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, 1 yuan banknotes and 1 yuan, 5 jiao, 1 jiao coins of the 2019 edition from August 30, 2019. The fifth set of RMB inherits the traditional experience of China's printing technology and draws lessons from the advanced technology of foreign banknote design, which has greatly improved its anti-counterfeiting performance and currency processing modernization

Chairman Mao Zedong's head portrait in the early days of the founding of the people's Republic of China is used on the front of each denomination currency, the famous Chinese flower pattern is used on the bottom, and the main scenery pattern on the back fully shows China's long history and magnificent mountains and rivers, and carries forward China's great national culture by selecting representative patterns with national characteristics

There are two reasons for the prohibition of virtual currency trading by the state:

1. The price fluctuates violently and the consumer protection is lacking:

virtual currency is the proct of network, and the digital information flowing in the network is beyond everyone's control. The code of cyberspace is the basis of the operation of virtual currency, investors can only operate through the front-end interface, seemingly "control" the virtual currency. The operator of the virtual currency service organization may become the actual controller of the virtual currency through the control code

bitcoin and other so-called "virtual currencies" lack a clear value basis, the market is full of speculative atmosphere, the price fluctuates violently, and investors blindly follow suit, which is easy to cause capital losses

2. Evade supervision and become the "accomplice" of criminal activities:

bitcoin is popular as a payment tool in the so-called "dark web" world“ The "dark net" is full of all kinds of serious criminal activities. One of the original intentions of the invention of bitcoin is to evade regulation. It has the characteristics of anonymity and convenient cross-border flow, and has become the preferred tool of "underground economy"

the existence of bitcoin and exchanges and other instrial chains has constructed a illegal financial market for asset transfer and financing in addition to legal currency, increased the difficulty of regulatory authorities in managing financial security and stability, and promoted regulatory arbitrage and financial crimes. The risks and social security risks it brings to the financial market are far higher than its innovative value

extended information

virtual currency transactions are not protected by law:

according to the notice on preventing bitcoin risks issued by the people's Bank of China and other departments on December 3, 2013 and the announcement on preventing financing risks of token issuance issued by seven ministries and commissions including the people's Bank of China on September 4, 2017, virtual currency is not issued by monetary authorities, It is not a real currency because it does not have the monetary attributes of legal compensation and compulsion

in terms of nature, virtual currency should be a specific virtual commodity, which does not have the same legal status as currency, and can not and should not be used as currency in the market. Although citizens' investment and trading in other virtual currencies are personal freedom, they can not be protected by law

There is no law in China to ban bitcoin, so it is not illegal to mine and earn bitcoin

it is not illegal to buy bitcoin in China. In 2013, five ministries and commissions jointly issued the bitcoin risk notice, which states that although bitcoin does not belong to legal tender and is not legally compulsory, people can freely participate in bitcoin trading activities when they voluntarily undertake risks

"notice" clearly defines the nature of bitcoin, and holds that bitcoin is not issued by the monetary authority, has no monetary attributes such as legal compensation and mandatory, and is not a real currency. In terms of nature, bitcoin is a specific virtual commodity, which does not have the same legal status as currency and cannot and should not be used as currency in the market

however, as a kind of commodity trading on the Internet, ordinary people have the freedom to participate in bitcoin trading at their own risk

the notice requires that at this stage, financial institutions and Payment institutions shall not price procts or services with bitcoin, buy or sell bitcoin as a central counterparties, underwrite insurance business related to bitcoin or include bitcoin in the scope of insurance liability, and provide other bitcoin related services to customers directly or indirectly, Including: providing bitcoin registration, trading, clearing, settlement and other services for customers; Accept bitcoin or use bitcoin as a payment and settlement tool; Carry out bitcoin and RMB and foreign currency exchange services; Carry out bitcoin storage, custody, mortgage and other services; Issuing financial procts related to bitcoin; Take bitcoin as the investment target of trust, fund, etc

in order to avoid over hype of virtual commodities such as bitcoin in the name of "virtual currency" and damage the public interest and the legal tender status of RMB, the circular requires financial institutions and Payment institutions to correctly use the concept of currency in their daily work, pay attention to strengthening the ecation of the public's knowledge of currency, and correctly understand the concept of currency The concept of correctly treating virtual commodity and virtual currency, rational investment, reasonable control of investment risk, and maintenance of their own property security should be included in the content of financial knowledge popularization activities, so as to guide the public to establish a correct concept of currency and investment

source of reference: People's website bitcoin network virtual currency