China’s authorities continue surprising the global community. The fact is that China's Central Bank New Deputy Governor Li Bo announced that bitcoin is a real investment alternative.
When bitcoin only appeared and for a long time after that, the Chinese regulator was treating the cryptocurrency with deep distrust. Later, it even banned the cryptocurrency trading and mining. However, some time later, the central bank changed its attitude to bitcoin. Of course, it is too early to say that the regulator will recognize virtual money as real one.
“We regard Bitcoin and stablecoin [cryptocurrencies where the price is designed to be pegged to a cryptocurrency, fiat money, or to exchange-traded commodities] as crypto assets ... These are investment alternatives,” Li Bo, deputy governor of the PBOC, said. As a result, the main digital assets showed a confident rise amid the news.
Notably, in 2017, China banned the so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs), a way of attracting investments in companies, as well as cryptocurrency exchanges. Such measures were allegedly taken to save financial stability of the country.
