Owning Bitcoin is legal in China

In a recent report, the Beijing News analyzed a case which involved more than 100 people who were scammed out of 7,000 BTC. Wei Xiao, a council member at the Bank of China Law Research Association, stated that owning bitcoin in China is legal.

Although the legal consequences of over-the-counter trading remain uncertain, Xiao suggested that it is legal to buy bitcoin for personal purposes.

Cases related to bitcoin increased significantly between 2014 to 2018.

At the moment, there are over 460 outstanding bitcoin-related legal cases in China.

In 2014, there were reported 26 legal cases while in 2018 alone there were more than 250.

The chief audit officer of the Bank of China, Wei Xiao, believes that owning bitcoin is legal in the country as well as the sporadic exchange between individuals.

Wang Deyi, a lawyer related to the matter, states that even though sporadic bitcoin transactions could be legal, over-the-counter transactions are difficult to obtain legal recognition because of how wide they can extend.

In the event of a dispute, investors could encounter difficulties to find legal evidence of the transactions.

There is a long road for bitcoin to become completely legal in China due to the increasing number of fraud cases surrounding it.

Once the Chinese government is able to oversee virtual currencies transactions, it may welcome new ventures in the country-broadening the bitcoin market to China's base of over a billion people.