China Legalizes Peer to Peer OTC Trading and Allows Citizens To Hold Bitcoin

China has maintained quite a passive stance towards the crypto space, where it fist banned operations of crypto exchanges back in 2017, did not allow the use of crypto in their financial sector and earlier this year put a complete blanket ban on cryptocurrency mining. When all doors seemed closed for the crypto proponents in the country, the government has decided to legalize holding of Bitcoin as well as Peer-to-peer Over the counter trading.

Xiao Wei, a Council Member at the Law Research Association of the Bank of China, announced that the citizens can safely hold Bitcoin even though there is no provision for its use. The country has put a complete ban on Initial Coin Offerings as well but seems to have a change of heart over the possession of Bitcoin.

We said,

“In 2013, China gave a clear definition of the legal nature of Bitcoin itself: a specific virtual commodity, that is, its status as a “property.” The General Principles of Civil Law, implemented on October 1, 2017, reconfirmed that virtual property is protected by Chinese Law. Xiao Wei analyzed that based on this, owning Bitcoin is legal in China.”

Similarly, the government has also deemed “Over the counter” trades as legal. The reason being the laws which give the right to a citizen to transfer an asset to another person along with rights associated with it. Wei explained,

“How to dispose of it is the private right of the owner, and others have no right to interfere.”

Wei’s statements suggest that the Chinese government has a restrictive policy over the use of cryptocurrencies, and there are a total of 461 pending cases regarding Bitcoin itself.