China Bans Bitcoin (Again)

China banned Bitcoin so many times it became a meme. The price always recovered.

China has "banned" Bitcoin so many times that crypto veterans stopped counting. The first ban came in 2013 when the PBOC told banks they couldn't handle Bitcoin transactions. Then again in 2017, when ICOs were outlawed and exchanges were shut down. Then in 2019, with broader restrictions. And the big one: May 2021, when China banned crypto mining entirely.

Each ban triggered a market crash. Each crash recovered. The cycle became so predictable that "China bans Bitcoin" became the most reliable buy signal in crypto.

The 2021 mining ban was the only one that actually changed the industry. At the time, China controlled roughly 75% of global Bitcoin hash rate. When miners were forced to shut down and relocate, hash rate dropped 50% overnight. It was the largest migration of computing power in history. Miners moved to Texas, Kazakhstan, Russia, and anywhere else with cheap electricity.

Within six months, hash rate had fully recovered and was more geographically distributed than ever. By 2022, China's share of Bitcoin mining had dropped below 5%. The country that once dominated the network had made itself irrelevant. Bitcoin did exactly what it was designed to do: survive government attacks.