Charlie Lee: China Bitcoin Mining Ban Rumors are False

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee says a trusted source has told him that China will not ban bitcoin mining operations or the bitcoin network. He says the rumors are being propagated by large-scale traders who are attempting to manipulate the bitcoin price.

Lee revealed this information Thursday night on Twitter, stating that he had not traded on the knowledge before making it public.

1/ I have a trusted source that says that there's no truth to China banning mining or network.

FYI, I haven't made any trades on this info.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) September 22, 2017

With this tweet, Lee joins MGT Capital’s John McAfee in contradicting a series of rumors suggesting that China would widen its crackdown on cryptocurrency to extend to mining. Citing a conversation with Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu, McAfee stated that regulators will not make mining illegal.

Nevertheless, Chinese miners account for a majority of the bitcoin hashrate, and the markets have been shaky as they attempt to separate rumor from fact.This fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) present within the market “is propagated by large manipulators trying to make money shorting,” Lee suggested. “They know that China ban FUD works and cannot be proven wrong.”

He added that the order-book exchange ban “is still absolutely true,” although it is “not clear” whether China will shut down all peer-to-peer trading platforms (BitKan has already announced it will terminate its trading platform). Of course, many industry observers–including Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart–have pointed out that a ban on peer-to-peer trading would indirectly ban professional bitcoin mining as well since miners would not have an outlet to sell the coins they mine.

Lee has been ahead of much of the recent news regarding China’s cryptocurrency squeeze. Citing an anonymous source, he predicted the bitcoin exchange ban, along with OKCoin and Huobi’s meeting with regulators to discuss the terms of their closures. He has not revealed the name of his source, but many on social media have speculated that it is his brother, BTCC CEO Bobby Lee.