The Chinese central #bank has described #Bitcoin as an "alternative investment," marking a major shift in Beijing's tone after a crackdown on issuing and trading the #cryptocurrency nearly 4 years ago.
Industry insiders described the comments as "progressive" and are closely monitoring any regulatory changes made by the People's Bank of #China.
For his part, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, Li Bo, said on Sunday during a session hosted by CNBC at the Boao Forum:
"We consider Bitcoin and stable currencies to be cryptocurrency assets ... these are alternative investments."
He added, "It is not a currency in and of itself. So the main role we see for crypto assets in the future is as an alternative investment."
Alternative investments are defined as innovative and modern investment and financing tools, which the markets were not familiar with in the past.
This comes as Chinese investors were once among the largest buyers of Bitcoin in the world, according to "CNBC".
But in 2017, China banned so-called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a method of raising funds for crypto companies that is similar to a stock offering, but the units sold are cryptocurrencies rather than stocks.
But.....
In the same year, authorities shut down local cryptocurrency exchanges, as the moves were driven by concerns about financial stability.
"Many countries, including China, are still looking at Bitcoin as an alternative investment, and are thinking about the type of regulatory requirements," Lee said, adding, "It might be small, but we need some kind of regulatory requirement to prevent speculation on such things." Assets and create no serious risks to financial stability. "
He also stressed that the central bank would maintain its current regulations regarding cryptocurrencies.
In turn, the CEO and founder of Babel Finance, Flex Yang, described the comments as "progressive", while the head of business development at the Luno Cryptocurrency Exchange, Vijay May, said: "I think it is very important and definitely different from their previous statements or their positions on currencies." Encrypted public. "
May believes that governments are realizing the importance of Bitcoin as a viable and established asset class, and they just need to regulate it.
