China Regulators Visit Coinbase, Others To Discuss ‘Significant’ Crypto Issues

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has visited Coinbase and Ripple on a US research delegation about the “significant” issue of cryptocurrency.

As local news outlet Sohu reports this week, the visit to various San Francisco startups was part of a mission to understand US approaches to Blockchain regulation.

"The PBoC was one of the parties to travel, with representatives also coming from the Shanghai New Financial Research Institute and Peking University Digital Finance Research Center, among others."

“Through this mutual communication, the delegation members reached a number of effective and valuable conclusions [on fintech regulatory approaches],” Sohu reports.

In addition to Coinbase and Ripple, Circle also participated in hosting the task force, along with startups such as Sofi and Prosper, all based in the Bay area.

Yao Qian, director of the PBoC’s digital and monetary research institute, “pointed out that the issuance of legal digital money is significant,” the publication continues in the context of Chinese authorities’ current efforts to issue a centralized digital form of the Renminbi.

China is currently exercising scrutiny over certain aspects of the Blockchain industry, specifically ICOs and the resulting tokens, which it said could face “suspension” if research exposes “large risks” to consumers.

Escaping Legislative Gray Areas

The pressures of China’s uncertain regulatory environment for projects issuing digital tokens are already apparent.

NEO, the ecosystem billed as China’s answer to Ethereum, continues to fall in value after the company wrote on its Slack channel it would no longer serve Chinese users.

$NEO was marketed as"Chinese #Ethereum" with many ICOs lined up. These ICOs are already blocking Chinese citizens. In $Crypto we say "rekt". pic.twitter.com/mNRHGCJkI3

Previously, media sources reported the risks of punishments as harsh as death for participation in and distribution of unsanctioned monetary schemes such as ICOs.

In the US too, the Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended the activities of several token operators due to non-compliance, and has publicly warned potential investors to exercise caution.

The ICO market meanwhile continues to expand internationally, with hundreds of sales lined up before the end of 2017.