China’s Crypto Transactions Surge to $176 Billion Despite Ban

Despite China’s ban on cryptocurrency exchanges and services, mainland transactions from July 2023 to June 2024 reached at least $176 billion. Chainalysis reports that 59.1% of these transactions were direct transfers between users, bypassing centralized platforms. Analysts note a 3.5-fold increase in peer-to-peer (P2P) operations over the year, indicating a shift toward decentralized transactions.

Stablecoins saw the most significant changes, with the number of unique wallets sending these tokens increasing 43 times from Q1 2024 to Q2 2026. Small transfers surged dramatically: transactions under $100 rose 996%, those between $100 and $1,000 grew 1,057%, and transfers between $1,000 and $10,000 increased 1,321%. In total, 18.1 million P2P stablecoin transactions amounted to $104.1 billion, with an average wallet value of about $3.1 billion.

Chainalysis attributes the P2P surge to the expansion of China’s social credit system into finance and the internet, starting in March 2025. Some users may have turned to crypto to avoid restrictions in traditional financial systems or to operate outside government-controlled channels. Unlike Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, where digital asset transactions are integrated into regulated systems, mainland China has seen a shift toward direct user transfers.

Earlier, eight Chinese regulators, including the People’s Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), prohibited companies and individuals from issuing yuan-pegged stablecoins without permission. Despite these restrictions, stablecoins in China turned over 33.2 times in a year, compared to the global average of 9.3 times, suggesting their use as a payment instrument rather than long-term storage.