06/10 update below. This post was originally published on June 8
Bitcoin has swung wildly this week as U.S. president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump were warned there’s “only one way to save the dollar.”
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The bitcoin price has topped its previous all-time high in recent months—climbing above $70,000 per bitcoin, helping the ethereum price to triple and Ripple’s XRP XRP to add almost 50% since their 2022 lows—as Ripple’s chief executive issues an “inevitable” new crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) prediction after the success of Wall Street’s spot bitcoin ETFs.
Now, with the Federal Reserve quietly admitting that gold is replacing the U.S. dollar, bitcoin and crypto investor Brock Pierce has said it’s only a matter of time before China reopens its digital doors to crypto after its 2021 crackdown crashed the bitcoin price.
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“Is China going to open up [to crypto]? … I’d say it’s inevitable,” Pierce, a former child actor who cofounded the USDT dollar-pegged stablecoin issuer Tether Tether in Hong Kong a decade ago, told the South China Morning Post. “The question is not so much if, it’s a matter of when.”
Pierce, who is also chairman of the Bitcoin Bitcoin Foundation, teased a new Hong Kong-based venture to the SCMP, saying he’s “enthusiastic about what’s happening in Hong Kong,” a special administrative region of China that has recent green lit a handful of spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs, following in Wall Street’s footsteps.
06/10 update: This week, G7 leaders plan to warn small banks in China over their Russia ties after sanctions have “stoked the use of underground financing channels or banned cryptocurrency,” it was reported by Reuters.
During this week’s G7 meeting of wealthy democracies in Italy, leaders are expected to send a tough new warning to China’s small banks to stop assisting Russia in evading Western sanctions with meetings expected to focus on the threat posed by burgeoning Chinese-Russian trade to the war in Ukraine.
In April, it was reported that after China’s big banks pulled back from financing Russia-related transactions, some China companies have turned to small banks on the border and cryptocurrency.
“Our concern is that China is increasingly the factory of the Russian war machine. You can call it the arsenal of autocracy when you consider Russia’s military ambitions threaten obviously the existence of Ukraine, but increasingly European security, NATO and transatlantic security,” Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, was quoted by Reuters.
Following the implementation of U.S.-led Western sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, bitcoin and crypto were touted by some as a potential way to evade the strict financial rules.
Last month, attendees of a Hong Kong bitcoin conference sparked speculation the much-hyped Hong Kong spot bitcoin ETFs could eventually be opened up to mainland China investors.
“I think Hong Kong is ahead in many ways,” Pierce said. “I think the main opportunity in Hong Kong is in [traditional finance], and that’s where a Hong Kong digital dollar stablecoin has tremendous potential.”
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ForbesBitcoin Braced To Go ‘Parabolic’ After ‘Amazing’ 2017 Price Breakout RepeatBy Billy Bambrough
Pierce added that China’s supply chain advantage means “there’s clearly a very big opportunity that exists [in Hong Kong].”
This week, there were further signs Hong Kong and China are gradually warming back up to bitcoin and crypto, with Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit announcing it will allow Chinese nationals living overseas to open accounts and trade crypto.
“Bybit, one of the world’s top three crypto exchanges by volume, is pleased to announce the expansion of our service offerings to the overseas Chinese community,” the company said in a statement. “This move is in response to the growing demand for secure, reliable, and user-friendly cryptocurrency trading platforms among Chinese expatriates and international Chinese communities.”