The Crypto Paradox: China banned Bitcoin, but the Chinese built a global Crypto empire

China has followed a restrictive approach towards cryptocurrency by banning cryptocurrency-related activities such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2017, outlawing crypto trading platforms, to enforcing a nationwide crackdown on crypto mining in 2021.

Yet, despite this firm ban, some of the most powerful and influential crypto ventures in the world today were founded by Chinese entrepreneurs or are heavily influenced by Chinese ownership and capital. This contradiction gives rise to a remarkable paradox: China bans crypto, but Chinese entities own crypto.

As the world is moving towards adopting crypto as the future of finance and as a future money, the Chinese rule the crypto world globally, but they have exited the stage at home.

The action of the Chinese towards cryptocurrency effectively erased the legal presence of crypto businesses within China’s borders.

While retail crypto trading and mining have been curtailed within China, the country’s strategic entrepreneurs, tech investors, and state-linked entities have merely rechanneled their efforts offshore. Leveraging global regulatory arbitrage, Chinese crypto pioneers have headquartered their projects in crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, Dubai. Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.

This strategy enables Chinese founders to tap into global capital markets while skirting domestic restrictions, resulting in a quiet consolidation of global crypto infrastructure under Chinese control.

While Chinese regulators have pushed crypto out of their jurisdiction, Chinese entrepreneurs and investors have done just the opposite, building, owning, and influencing some of the biggest players in the global crypto landscape.

Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-Canadian developer born in Jiangsu, China, Binance handles over $2.2 trillion in spot trading volume, making it the largest crypto exchange by far (5).

Although it relocated its headquarters several times due to regulatory pressures from China to Japan and Malta, and now reportedly operates with a decentralized structure, the leadership and much of its early development were deeply rooted in China. Binance continues to hold significant influence, having 270 million users globally as of 2025 (5).

TRON is a blockchain-based operating system founded by Justin Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur and former protégé of Alibaba’s Jack Ma. While TRON is now officially headquartered in Singapore, Sun and his ventures, including the acquisition of BitTorrent, were originally nurtured within the Chinese tech ecosystem.

Despite crypto restrictions, Sun maintains strong political and business connections within China. TRON has gained significant traction for supporting smart contracts and DeFi applications and remains one of the top blockchains by transaction volume.

Bitmain Technologies, founded by Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu in Beijing, was once the world’s largest manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware (ASICs). It was also behind the two biggest Bitcoin mining pools, Antpool and BTC.com.

Even after China’s 2021 crackdown on crypto mining, Bitmain survived by relocating operations abroad, notably to Kazakhstan and the U.S., while continuing to dominate hardware production globally. Bitmain’s existence is a testament to China’s enduring hold over the very infrastructure that powers Bitcoin.

Cobo is a leading crypto custody and wallet infrastructure provider founded by Discus Fish (co-founder of F2Pool, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools) and Changhao Jiang (former Facebook engineer). Originally based in Beijing, Cobo moved operations to Singapore after the 2021 crackdown. Cobo serves institutional clients with high-end security and DeFi yield strategies, quietly enabling Chinese capital to access crypto wealth globally while staying compliant offshore.

Matrixport is a digital asset financial services platform co-founded by Jihan Wu, former CEO of Bitmain. After resigning from Bitmain, Wu pivoted to crypto banking, offering lending, trading, and custody services to institutions and high-net-worth individuals.Despite being headquartered in Singapore, Matrixport’s clientele and founders are largely Chinese. The platform bridges traditional finance with crypto.

Huobi, founded by Leon Li in Beijing in 2013, was one of the first major crypto exchanges in China. After the 2017 ban, it moved its headquarters to Singapore and then to the Seychelles. Despite this, Huobi retains Chinese-speaking staff and continues to cater to Chinese-speaking markets globally.

In 2022, Huobi was acquired by About Capital, a Hong Kong-based asset management company, and recently rebranded to HTX. The move is symbolic of how Chinese investors and entities continue to re-enter crypto under new brands and structures.

CoinEx, founded in 2017 by Haipo Yang, also founded ViaBTC, one of the top Bitcoin mining pools. Although CoinEx is registered in Seychelles and has international ambitions, its core user base is Chinese-speaking.

CoinEx offers spot and futures trading and staking services, maintaining a strong position among second-tier exchanges. It reflects how mid-sized Chinese players continue to grow under the radar.

ViaBTC is a cryptocurrency mining pool founded in May 2016 by Haipo Yang, a former Tencent engineer. The company is headquartered in China and has grown to become one of the largest Bitcoin mining pools globally, accounting for approximately 14% of the network’s hashrate as of early 2025 (18).

Despite China’s official ban on cryptocurrency mining, ViaBTC continues to operate on a global scale, offering services in over 130 countries (19). The company provides mining support for various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and others. While China’s regulations have pushed many crypto operations abroad, ViaBTC’s continued global presence underscores the complex relationship between Chinese-founded crypto ventures and domestic regulatory policies.

ImToken is one of the most widely used mobile Ethereum wallets in Asia. Developed by a Chinese startup in Hangzhou, it has over 12 million users and supports multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Cosmos, and Bitcoin (20).

While headquartered in Singapore now, the team behind ImToken remains largely Chinese. The wallet has strong integrations with DApps and DeFi protocols and provides access to token swaps, staking, and on-chain identity, effectively enabling crypto transactions.

KuCoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017 by Chinese entrepreneurs Michael Gan and Eric Don. Known for its wide selection of altcoins and early token listings, KuCoin quickly gained popularity among retail traders worldwide.

Though originally developed in China, the platform is now headquartered in Seychelles and serves users in over 200 countries (22). Despite China’s strict crypto bans, KuCoin reflects the paradox of Chinese-founded ventures playing a dominant role in the global crypto ecosystem.

Bybit, headquartered in Dubai, is a prominent cryptocurrency exchange platform that has rapidly ascended the ranks of the crypto industry since its inception. Founded in 2018 by Ben Zhou, a Chinese entrepreneur.

Offers spot and derivatives trading, copy trading, Web3 wallet, DeFi services, etc. Bybit has experienced significant growth since its launch. In 2023, the platform’s market share in spot trading surged from 1.1% to 9.4%, marking an impressive 700% increase (23). This growth positioned Bybit as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.

Bybit has established itself as a key player in the global crypto market. The exchange operates in over 160 countries, catering to a diverse user base (25). Its commitment to innovation and user experience has contributed to its rapid expansion and popularity among traders worldwide.

OKX, founded by Star Xu in China, is a major global crypto exchange with millions of users. Like the other crypto exchanges in China, it moved operations offshore (Hong Kong and Malta) post-ban but retains Chinese leadership and team members.

OKX has launched major DeFi products, staking services, and wallets while maintaining influence in the Asia-Pacific crypto markets. It is one of the top three exchanges in the world by daily trading volume, frequently surpassing Coinbase (26).

Future Money – Already in Chinese hands:

If cryptocurrency represents the future of global finance, a decentralized evolution beyond traditional fiat, then Chinese founders have strategically secured a dominant position in shaping that future. Despite China’s domestic ban on crypto trading and mining, Chinese entrepreneurs and firms continue to own and operate most of the largest and most influential crypto platforms worldwide. This gives China indirect yet substantial leverage to influence global standards for decentralized protocols, control significant liquidity flows, and dominate the infrastructure and supply chains that power the crypto economy. Without active domestic adoption, China has, by design or consequence, exported its crypto ambitions globally, embedding itself in the foundational architecture of decentralized finance while shielding its internal economy from its potential volatility.

China may have banned crypto, but in practice, it has externalized it. Through offshore ventures, Chinese founders and corporations continue to build and control major portions of the crypto landscape. If crypto is indeed the currency of the future, then much of that future is already owned by the Chinese.

The paradox is clear: the country that outlawed crypto may be the one best positioned to profit from its eventual mainstream adoption.

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