China is preparing a fresh round of regulations aimed at curbing cryptocurrency trading. According to reports from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) affiliated Financial News, the government is looking specifically at “offshore platforms”.

As part of the move, the Chinese government will be blocking websites and ads related to ICOs, crypto-trading and exchanges.

Domestic ICOs and local exchanges have already been banned across the country since September, but the new regulations seem to indicate that these measures have not stopped people accessing foreign services.

The Financial News report stated that:

“Overseas transactions and regulatory evasion have resumed. Risks are still there, fuelled by illegal issuance, and even fraud and pyramid selling.”

According to South China Morning Post, adverts for crypto services and products have stopped appearing on the country’s largest search engine, Baidu, and social media platform Weibo.

Significant measures

The continued moves against ICOs will have definite effects on the Chinese market. Most Chinese ICOs are invested in by domestic investors, so the ban threatens to bring the whole market grinding to a halt.

Earlier this year, the PBOC also prohibited financial institutions from providing any funding to activities related to cryptocurrencies.

The moves are also likely to have wider effects within the global crypto market. According to Business Insider, around $340 billion of value has been wiped off the market since the beginning of 2018. Many people are speculating that the regulatory crackdown in Asia (with South Korea also clamping down) is a major factor in the recent tribulations of the market.

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