A court in China has ruled that citizens are allowed to trade cryptocurrencies. This while the government in China announced a total ban on the trading of cryptocurrencies in 2021. However, according to the court, the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment is still prohibited.
Chinese crypto lawsuit
It Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court judged that interested investors can trade cryptocurrencies, but they should be treated as virtual assets and not as currency or means of payment.
The ruling was made in a case about a crypto loan in the form Litecoin (LTC). While the court recognized the existing Chinese ban on trading cryptocurrencies, the judge noted that Litecoin cannot be seen as a currency. According to the court, the cryptocurrency is not issued by a ‘monetary authority’.
“According to real administrative regulations and cases, our country only denies the monetary properties of virtual currency and prohibits its circulation as currency, but the virtual currency itself is a virtual property protected by law,” the court ruled.
In the case, the judge cited a lack of laws that label Litecoin as an illegal commodity.
Cryptocurrencies in China
Last year, the Chinese government shocked the world by mine and prohibit trading of cryptocurrencies in the country. At the time, this had major consequences for the crypto market, and of course also for Chinese citizens.
However, courts in China seem to disagree with this ban in a number of cases. Earlier, a court in shanghai know that Bitcoin (BTC) did indeed have a certain economic value and that citizens retained the right to own the cryptocurrency.
In addition, many Chinese do not seem to care much about current bans. For example, China is still in tenth place when it comes to the global adoption of cryptocurrencies, according to a recent report from chainalysis.
