China stops ICO trading

Chinese regulators have blocked booming business of ICO or Initial Coin Offering which is an unregulated mean by which funds are raised for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ventures because it’s related to illegal money raising, media reported yesterday.

A top-level ICO conference scheduled to be held in Beijing during the weekend was cancelled. Major ICO trading platforms were informed by Chinese regulators, Caixin reported during the weekend.

BTCChina, one of the top three Bitcoin trading platforms, has stopped offering ICO trading at the weekend, only one week since it debuted the ICO service, the Shanghai-based company said on its website.

The booming price of Bitcoin in China boosted ICO trading in China. In the first half, ICO projects raised 2.61 billion yuan (US$383 million) from 105,000 people, said a state-level online finance risk analysis platform under the National Computer Network Emergency Response and Coordination Center.

In China, ICO is usually used by startups to bypass regulated capital-raising process required by venture capitalists, banks and government regulators.