China & Crypto. Understanding the evolving laws prohibiting ownership, promotion, and money making.

TL;DR - You can't just point the finger at China and say, "China's banned bitcoin for the 500th time now. You have to understand the framework the government uses for it.

https://www.pbc.gov.cn/tiaofasi/144941/3581332/2026020619591971323/index.html

We already know Buying, selling, and mining in china is illegal, but somehow it still takes place.

In Hong Kong, SAR of China, crypto buying and selling is legal. If you're a Chinese company and you want to gain exposure to bitcoin / crypto, the only way is through getting an ETFs available from companies on the HK stock market exchange. No self-custody involved.

A lot of projects in China use referral code structures to bring in new people to the project. Some more recent buzz terms include "RWA" and similar terminology. Sometimes these can be legit. Other times these can just be ways to bring in other users. Typically, the way project owners make money from these is from transaction fees that go on within the RWA structure - which is often a Pyramid or MLM scheme.

People aren't supposed to promote these projects, so what I have seen is large amounts of people gathering at auditoriums and when they are in auditoriums, phones are temporarily confiscated and then returned to all participants. The atmosphere is generally positive, but you cannot escape the MLM vibe. However, when you search for information about these projects on the Chinese web, it is often sparse because it isn't safe (according to Chinese law) to attach one's face to promoting a cryptocurrency project in China.

How does funding take place? Often times from USDT on BSC. Are they all worth investing in? I cannot say. I can only say if you are looking into these projects, consider mitigating your exposure and if it seems legit, scale it up to as much as you are comfortable with.

EDIT: With regards to saying, "People aren't supposed to promote these projects." I believe this only applies to people living in China. At least, I don't think the CCP would care if a Chinese person living outside of China would be punished for promoting these projects.