China Crypto Ban: What Happened and How It Changed Global Crypto

When China crypto ban, a sweeping government crackdown on cryptocurrency trading, mining, and exchanges that began in 2021 and intensified through 2024. It’s also known as China’s cryptocurrency prohibition, it didn’t just shut down local platforms—it sent shockwaves through Bitcoin mining, DeFi development, and global regulatory thinking. Before the ban, China controlled over 70% of Bitcoin mining power. Then, overnight, miners lost access to cheap hydroelectric power, mining rigs were seized, and exchanges like Huobi and OKX were forced to shut down operations inside the country. This wasn’t just a policy shift—it was a full-scale digital asset purge.

The ban wasn’t just about Bitcoin mining China, the process of validating Bitcoin transactions using powerful computers that consume massive amounts of electricity. It was also about control. The People’s Bank of China wanted to push its own digital currency, the e-CNY, and saw decentralized crypto as a threat to financial sovereignty. So they moved against everything: peer-to-peer trading, crypto ATMs, even wallet apps. The result? Over 1,000 crypto-related businesses fled China. Many ended up in places like Singapore, the UAE, and Kazakhstan. But even those countries had to tighten their own rules after seeing how aggressively China acted.

What’s often missed is how this ban changed how the world sees cryptocurrency regulation, government rules that define what’s legal and illegal in crypto trading, mining, and taxation. Countries like the Philippines, Nigeria, and India watched China’s move and realized they could use similar tactics—blocking exchanges, banning advertising, or forcing local platforms to comply with strict KYC rules. The crypto exchange shutdown, the forced closure of platforms due to regulatory pressure, often without warning or compensation to users became a global warning sign. Platforms that didn’t have clear licenses or local presence started disappearing overnight, just like UPEX, VAEX, and BIJIEEX in our reviews.

And it’s not over. Even today, China blocks crypto-related websites, monitors domestic wallets, and fines anyone caught mining with unapproved hardware. Meanwhile, miners who escaped are still dealing with the fallout—equipment sitting idle, legal battles over seized rigs, and uncertainty about where to go next. The China crypto ban didn’t kill crypto. But it forced the entire industry to grow up. It exposed how fragile centralized exchanges were. It showed that mining isn’t just about tech—it’s about energy, geography, and politics. And it proved that governments can move faster than markets when they decide to act.

Below, you’ll find real reviews of exchanges that vanished after China’s crackdown, deep dives into how mining bans ripple across global power grids, and breakdowns of how other countries copied China’s playbook. No fluff. Just facts from the front lines of crypto’s most dramatic regulatory moment.