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The development of virtual currency at home and abroad is experiencing "ice and fire".
Recently, a number of Bitcoin futures ETFs have been approved for listing and trading. In the international market, enthusiasm for virtual currency trading has been ignited again. Bitcoin once surged by 6%, breaking through its historical high and reaching a high of US$66,998.
On October 20, the second day after the first SEC-approved ProShares Bitcoin futures ETF BITO was officially traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Bitcoin futures ETF applied for by asset management giant VanEck was also approved by the SEC. The Bitcoin futures ETF will be launched after October 23; in addition, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF launched by crypto asset management agency Valkyrie Investments plans to be listed on the Nasdaq this Friday.
JPMorgan strategists said it was inflation concerns rather than enthusiasm for the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF that drove bitcoin prices to record highs. In itself, the launch of BITO is unlikely to trigger more new capital into bitcoin. There has been a trend from gold ETFs to bitcoin funds since September.
Although virtual currency investment is still popular abroad, the domestic situation shows a very different development trend. On the one hand, the central bank and ten other ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation", and listed virtual currency-related business activities as illegal financial activities; on the other hand, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments require comprehensive rectification of virtual currency "mining" activities, comprehensive investigation and investigation of virtual currency "mining" projects, strictly prohibiting investment and construction of new projects, and accelerating the orderly exit of existing projects.
According to a Securities Times reporter, Bitcoin mines in Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Sichuan, Xinjiang and other places have been basically closed since May. Previously, the mines that were the focus of the investigation were basically distributed in the central and western provinces. Recently, the two eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have also publicly and comprehensively investigated virtual currency "mining" activities.
Recently, Zhejiang Province has launched a joint special rectification campaign to comprehensively crack down on the use of public resources to participate in virtual currency mining and trading. According to Zhejiang Internet Information Office, in early September this year, the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government made special arrangements to rectify the use of public resources to participate in virtual currency mining and trading, and carried out special rectification work across the province for the use of public resources from party and government agencies, state-owned enterprises, scientific research institutions and other units to participate in "mining".
The special operation conducted a comprehensive screening of 4,699 IP addresses suspected of participating in virtual currency mining in Zhejiang Province, and sorted out 184 IP addresses of 77 units suspected of using public resources for mining. The special inspection team, formed by the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Provincial Cyberspace Administration, the Provincial Public Security Department, and the Zhejiang Branch of the National Security Center, focused on verifying 119 IP addresses of 20 units through remote monitoring, on-site inspections, and technical verifications, involving more than 10 virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tuya Coin, and Erg Coin. A number of violators were investigated and punished, and the illegal proceeds were recovered.
The Communications Administration of Jiangsu Province recently released a work update stating that it has recently conducted a comprehensive investigation into virtual currency "mining" activities in the province. Monitoring found that the export traffic of mining pools conducting virtual currency activities reached 136.77Mbps, and the total number of Internet IP addresses involved in "mining" was 4,502, consuming computing power resources exceeding 10PH/s and energy consumption of 260,000 kWh/day.
Taking Ethereum and Bitcoin, where virtual currency "mining" activities are more common in Jiangsu Province, as an example, the cities with more "mining" are Suzhou, Xuzhou, and Nanjing. Judging from the ownership and nature of IP addresses, those belonging to party and government agencies, universities, and enterprises that were hacked and used to carry out virtual currency "mining" accounted for about 21%.
The Communications Administration of Jiangsu Province stated that it will continue to conduct an analysis of the virtual currency "mining" situation in the next step, and further cooperate with relevant departments to form a "multi-dimensional, multi-level" disposal system, deal with relevant websites and mobile applications in accordance with the law, and cooperate in tracing and cracking down on illegal virtual currency transactions.
Under multiple blows, virtual currency business in China is experiencing a "big retreat". Before and after the National Day, more than 30 currency-related institutions announced that they would close their Chinese user service business in response to regulatory requirements. Among them, the well-known trading platform OKEX said that it will continue to maintain the policy of withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market and will not set up offices and teams in mainland China. Binance said that it will remove the RMB trading area on December 31, 2021, and will also check mainland users and switch to a mode that only allows withdrawals. Bitmain stopped shipping to mainland China on October 11.
"As a major energy importing province, Zhejiang consumes huge amounts of electricity in virtual currency mining. The rapid upgrade of mining hardware and fierce competition in computing power result in large amounts of energy consumption, which runs counter to the province's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. At the same time, virtual currency speculation and trading disrupt the economic and financial order, bring risks of illegal transactions, money laundering, financial fraud and other illegal and criminal activities, and seriously infringe on the property safety of the people." This is what the Zhejiang notice said, which to a certain extent represents the official attitude towards virtual currency-related businesses.
At the recent third "Bund Financial Summit", Nobel Prize winner in Economics Michael SPENCE said that blockchain itself is a very useful technology, especially in the supply chain. But in addition, the blockchain-based digital currency currently seen is not stable, not an effective means of payment, nor an effective means of value storage. Its main purpose seems to be to provide tools for those who conduct illegal cross-border transactions. (Securities Times) |
