Crypto Ban China: What It Means for Crypto Users and Global Markets

When Crypto Ban China, a sweeping government policy that outlawed cryptocurrency trading, mining, and financial services related to digital assets. Also known as China's cryptocurrency crackdown, it began in 2013 but intensified in 2021, forcing exchanges to shut down operations and miners to relocate overnight. This wasn't just a regulatory tweak—it was a full system reset for one of the world’s largest crypto markets.

The ban didn’t just target exchanges like Binance and Huobi—it went after the infrastructure. Mining farms, once concentrated in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia, were shut down. Electricity subsidies for crypto mining were cut. Banks were ordered to block transactions involving crypto. Even holding Bitcoin in a personal wallet became legally gray. Meanwhile, blockchain technology, the underlying system behind cryptocurrencies, was still allowed—but only if it served state goals, like digital yuan projects or supply chain tracking. That split created a strange reality: you couldn’t trade Bitcoin, but you could build a blockchain-based logistics tracker for state-owned factories.

Outside China, the effects were immediate. Bitcoin’s price dropped 30% in a week after the 2021 mining ban. Miners fled to the U.S., Kazakhstan, and Russia. Countries like Nigeria and Colombia saw spikes in P2P trading as users looked for alternatives to failing banking systems. And non-custodial wallets, wallets where you control your own keys without relying on banks or exchanges. Also known as self-custody wallets, they became the only safe way for Chinese citizens to hold crypto after local platforms vanished. Today, if you’re in China, you can’t legally buy crypto on an app. But you can still receive it via wallet address. You just can’t cash out easily. The ban didn’t kill crypto—it pushed it underground, into peer-to-peer networks, Telegram groups, and encrypted apps.

What you’ll find in the posts below are real stories from people affected by this ban—how they adapted, what tools they use now, and why the same restrictions are being debated in other countries. From how mining bans reshaped global hash rates to how non-custodial wallets became lifelines, these articles don’t just explain the ban—they show what happened after it.