Cryptocurrency card freezing trend (5): No need to worry about card freezing? The right and wrong of the report of China Times

The core of the report is: Our reporter consulted the customer service of China Merchants Bank, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and the responses from each bank were roughly the same: "As long as the operation is legal, the channel is legal, the source of virtual currency is legal, and the page supports bank card services, the bank card will not actively freeze the user's funds unless it involves illegal cases such as money laundering and fraud."

This is actually common sense in the industry. In Wu's first article in the card freezing series, he emphasized that "account freezing" is a compulsory measure, and usually only public security, procuratorial and judicial organs and some administrative law enforcement agencies have the power to do so. Under normal circumstances, banks cannot do so.

The cheers in the cryptocurrency circle are mainly due to the fact that traditional financial media generally hold a negative attitude towards cryptocurrencies, and often simply imitate or apply critical information from regulators. It is rare to see an article that objectively puts forward the view of "decriminalizing" some cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, the actual risks of freezing cards should not reassure anyone or reduce their vigilance. The core reason for freezing cards is the lack of regulation and natural anonymity of cryptocurrencies. This year, the tightening of anti-money laundering regulation and the activeness of fraudsters due to the epidemic will greatly increase the probability of freezing cards, and people in the cryptocurrency circle must be vigilant.

According to Wu's investigation, the regulatory capabilities of trading platforms and the police are extremely low regarding Ponzi schemes, CX, fraud, etc. involving cryptocurrencies. Unless the victim reports the case, the platform and the regulator have almost no way to proactively capture the victim. Regarding the inflow of legal currency black money, the supervision is strong to a certain extent, but there is a lag. The explosive spread in Dongguan this time was due to the lag of several months, which led to the black money flowing to various OTC merchants, miners and users.

In addition, there is another point that needs to be clarified and an obvious error in the China Times report.

First, the article states that the response given by the Alipay management department is: "As long as there is an Alipay payment page and the operation is legal, there will be no problems such as fund freezing and account freezing."

This statement can easily give users the impression that there is no risk in using Alipay to trade cryptocurrencies. But in fact, there are many actual cases where direct use of WeChat and Alipay to trade cryptocurrencies has resulted in restrictions on receiving payments and freezing. Wu said that he would like to remind users not to use WeChat and Alipay to trade cryptocurrencies directly.

Second, the article cites an inexplicable background: the Chinese government's latest bill on cryptocurrency was proposed in 2019, when the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress of China approved a new bill that provides regulations for cryptocurrency. The regulations will introduce a new central cryptocurrency agency responsible for providing guidance for cryptocurrency activities and proposing appropriate policies for cryptocurrency scenarios.

In fact, this is just a cryptography law, not a cryptocurrency regulation, let alone a central cryptocurrency agency. It is a factual error, which shows that reporters need to strengthen their identification of facts.

Attached is the relevant report from China Times: https://www.chinatimes.net.cn/article/97656.html