Over-the-counter (OTC) crypto desks in China are reportedly attracting tens of billions of dollars from investors despite the nation’s crackdowns on the digital assets industry.
Citing data from crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, Bloomberg reports that the OTC brokers in China have lured in $75 billion worth of funds in the last nine months.
In 2021, the Chinese government banned both crypto mining and trading. According to the Bloomberg, Chinese crypto traders have turned to OTC or peer-to-peer (P2P) methods of trading to avoid detection.
The study finds that about 55% of OTC crypto transactions in China were over $1 million, though it’s unclear if the trades were made by individuals or businesses.
As stated by Eric Jardine, the cybercrimes research lead at Chainalysis,
“Given the regulatory context in China, including the ban on trading and mining of cryptocurrency, these services invariably fall in a gray zone of the economy…
Unless the regulatory situation in China becomes more favorable toward crypto, I would expect services like these to continue to grow over time.”
Anonymous people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that such payments were being used to settle cross-border payments with Russia as well.
However, Angela Ang, senior policy adviser at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, says that Chinese regulators may struggle to police international payments.
“We have seen Chinese authorities move to crack down on crypto-enabled crime and tighten anti-money laundering laws, but the reality is that these bans are difficult to enforce given the borderless nature of the industry.”
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