Bruised by stock market, Chinese rush into banned bitcoin

Dylan Run, a Shanghai-based finance sector executive, started moving a bit of his money into cryptocurrencies in early 2023, when he realized that the Chinese economy and its stock markets were going downhill. Crypto trading and mining has been banned in China since 2021. Run used bank cards issued by small rural commercial banks to buy cryptocurrencies through grey-market dealers, and capped each transaction at 50,000 yuan ($6,978) to escape scrutiny. "Bitcoin is a safe haven, like gold," says Run. He now owns roughly 1 million yuan worth of cryptocurrencies, accounting for half of his investment portfolio, compared with just…