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Panos Mourdoukoutas, a Special Contributor to Forbes, believes the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ban in China could just be a temporary one.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at LIU Post in New York as well as a professor at Columbia University, Mourdoukoutas writes:
China's big government and banks cannot tolerate Bitcoin. It threatens their very existence, as it was previously written in a piece here.
That's in the long term, though, when Bitcoin has the potential to replace the yuan in everyday transactions, and as a monetary asset.
At present and in the immediate future, however, the size of the Bitcoin economy is far too small to be a real threat to the Beijing government and the banking system it owns and manages.
That’s why something else must be at play behind the Bitcoin ban.
Mourdoukoutas speculates that “something” could be Beijing wanting to demonstrate it has full control of the country’s financial system.
If that was their aim, it didn't work. S&P Global downgraded China one notch last week, the professor acknowledged.
In addition there is an upcoming 19th Communist Party Convention whereby the party leadership is expected to be grilled over any innovation that threatens the party’s grip on the economy.
The cryptocurrency now represents up to 40% of all online gambling transactions in so-called "grey"markets including those throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
