The People’s Bank of China (performs the function of the central bank), which previously set numerous restrictions on mining and trading bitcoin, looked closer at it and recognized it as an “investment alternative.”

“We consider Bitcoin and stablecoin [the generic name for a group of cryptocurrencies pegged to conventional currencies or physical assets] as cryptocurrencies. They are investment alternatives,” said Li Bo, deputy head of the People’s Bank of China.

According to him, the regulator still does not consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be full-fledged currencies, so their only use lies in the investment plane.