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Chinese central bank vows crackdown on stable-coins as illegal trading surges
- IBJ Bureau
- Nov 30, 2025
China’s central bank has reaffirmed its tough stance on virtual currencies, warning of resurgence in speculation and vowing to crack down on illegal activities involving stable-coins.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has said at a coordinating meeting on virtual currency regulation that crypto speculation has recently increased due to various factors, presenting new challenges for risk control, according to a statement released by the central bank.
“Virtual currencies do not hold the same legal status as fiat currency and cannot be used as legal tender in the market,” the PBOC has said in a statement, adding that virtual currency-related business activities are “illegal financial activities”.
The central bank has specifically highlighted concerns about stable-coins, saying that they fail to meet requirements for customer identification and anti-money-laundering controls.
It has warned that stable-coins risk being used for illegal activities, including money laundering, fraud and unauthorised cross-border fund transfers.
The central bank has said that it will “intensify efforts to combat related illegal financial activities” and “to maintain economic and financial stability”.
In October, PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng had said that the central bank would continue to crack down on the operation and speculation of domestic virtual currencies and at the same time, closely track and dynamically evaluate the development of overseas stable-coins.
Hong Kong, which has established a regulatory regime for stable-coins, has not yet awarded any licences to issuers. In China, cryptocurrency trading has been banned since 2021.
Bitcoin mining is quietly staging a comeback in China despite being banned four years ago, as individual and corporate miners exploit cheap electricity and a data centre boom in some energy-rich provinces, according to miners and industry data.
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