[The People's Bank of China Drops Another Giant Bomb on Crypto Assets: The Renminbi "Golden Corridor" is Unveiling its Mysterious Veil | 2065]

On November 28, 2025, the Central Bank of China, namely the People's Bank, held a meeting to coordinate efforts to combat the speculation and trading of virtual currency. In fact, just the words "work coordination mechanism" remind me of the "national export control work coordination mechanism" that repeatedly appeared in the first half of this year. That was a special action deployed by the state to combat the smuggling and export of strategic minerals. Under its framework, a series of joint actions were organized by seven departments, including the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the General Administration of Customs, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the State Post Bureau, ensuring the effective implementation of export control sanctions against the United States regarding rare earth resources.

The recent meeting of the coordination mechanism for cracking down on virtual currency trading speculation has gathered 13 departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, the Central Cyberspace Administration, the Central Financial Office, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Justice, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The news states:

The conference pointed out that in recent years, various units have earnestly implemented the decisions and deployments of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. In accordance with the requirements of the "Notice on Further Preventing and Handling the Risks of Speculation in Virtual Currency Trading" jointly issued by the People's Bank of China and ten other departments in 2021, there has been a resolute crackdown on the speculation of virtual currency trading and a rectification of the chaos surrounding virtual currencies, achieving significant results. Recently, due to various factors, speculation in virtual currencies has risen, and related illegal activities have occurred from time to time, posing new situations and challenges for risk prevention and control.

The meeting emphasized that virtual currencies do not have the same legal status as legal tender, do not possess legal compensation, and should not and cannot be circulated as currency in the market. Activities related to virtual currencies are considered illegal financial activities. Stablecoins are a form of virtual currency that currently cannot effectively meet requirements for customer identification, anti-money laundering, and other aspects, posing risks of being used for illegal activities such as money laundering, fundraising fraud, and illegal cross-border fund transfers.

The conference requested that all units regard risk prevention and control as the eternal theme of financial work, continue to adhere to the prohibitive policy on virtual currencies, and persistently combat illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies. All units should deepen collaboration, improve regulatory policies and legal bases, focus on key links such as information flow and capital flow, strengthen information sharing, further enhance monitoring capabilities, severely crack down on illegal criminal activities, protect the property safety of the people, and maintain the stability of the economic and financial order.

The "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Speculation in Virtual Currency Transactions" mentioned above was issued on September 15, 2021, led by the People's Bank of China, in conjunction with the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other 10 departments, which included 16 detailed items in the document No. [2021]237. The issuance of that document took down all the virtual and real industrial chains surrounding Bitcoin speculation within China and formed a strong strike against Bitcoin's global trading.

Just half a month ago, during the sudden plunge of Bitcoin, Western media such as Reuters began to hype the completely unfounded claim of a large surplus of green electricity in Xinjiang and other western regions of China. They had to revive news about Bitcoin mining and speculation, attempting to raise Bitcoin's market value with Chinese themes to resolve the dilemma of Crypto Assets. Now, with the Central Bank's coordination meeting starting, the coin enthusiasts across the Pacific should have given up on this.

Next, I referenced comments from some netizens and tried to provide a partial and personal interpretation of the coordination meeting on the crackdown on virtual currency trading speculation held on November 28: The meeting chaired by the Central Bank was likely aimed at the term "stablecoin". With the statement "virtual currency does not have the same legal status as fiat currency, it does not have legal tender status, and should not and cannot circulate as currency in the market", the official once again directly defined the legal status difference between Crypto Assets and fiat currency. Especially after stablecoins have been legislated in the United States and Hong Kong, the Central Bank of China’s definition is primarily to distinguish that what is outside is outside, and what is inside is inside. No matter what the situation is outside, it is illegal and cannot be circulated inside.

Although stablecoins are referred to as digital currencies that are anchored to real assets and are designed to maintain a relatively stable price, their value is said to be usually linked to a certain fiat currency, commodity, or other asset, and their price remains almost unchanged, resembling electronic cash in the digital world - stablecoins remain illegal in China and cannot circulate, which is a fundamental qualitative aspect.

In addition, the statement "Activities related to virtual currency are considered illegal financial activities" essentially means that engaging in any business or activities related to Crypto Assets in mainland China is illegal; business includes development, operation, maintenance, community, etc., and activities include meetings, forums, gatherings, etc. Let it not be said that this was not foreseen.

There is also a saying, "Stablecoins are a form of virtual currency that currently cannot effectively meet the requirements for customer identification, anti-money laundering, and other aspects, posing risks of being used for illegal activities such as money laundering, fundraising fraud, and illegal cross-border fund transfers." This is considered the core content of the conference, directly stating that stablecoins cannot satisfy the Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. The three major risks of "money laundering, fundraising fraud, and illegal cross-border fund transfers" correspond to individual impact, social impact, and national impact, respectively, providing evidence that stablecoins are a parallel dollar system that circumvents China's foreign exchange controls, creating an unregulated "shadow dollar system" that directly threatens the sovereignty of the Renminbi and cross-border fund monitoring.

Therefore, from the above, I can put forward a new bold statement: In the future, China and the United States will increasingly diverge in their currency anchoring strategies, and no one can stop it.

Here I would like to introduce another netizen's bolder imagination and design, which is that China is currently building a decentralized international settlement network through gold, the principle of which is also similar to the Bitcoin (BTC) network.

For the past decade, the People's Bank of China has been the largest purchaser of physical gold in the world, consistently engaging in a simple practice: selling U.S. Treasury bonds to buy gold. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Gold Exchange is gradually becoming the largest physical gold trading market globally.

At this time, some may say that the country with the largest gold reserves is not the United States? However, according to analyses from certain institutions, China's actual gold reserves are now second only to the United States, and most of the holdings have not been disclosed. Furthermore, there is a lot of exaggeration in the gold reserves held by the United States, with a significant portion of the gold not even being on American soil; much of it is stored in London.

As reported by the Global Times at the end of October this year, through the Shanghai Gold Exchange and its innovative "Gold Corridor"—a high-tech vault network spanning BRICS countries and Belt and Road Initiative countries—China is redefining the global trade and financial landscape. These vaults are far more than just storage facilities; they enable secure trade settlements, gold-backed financing, and custody services that are unaffected by sanctions.

This "Golden Corridor" will allow all countries holding Renminbi to directly exchange for gold within it. Unlike the centralized network implemented by the Bretton Woods system, this gold is not solely held by China, but is distributed among all BRICS countries in a manner similar to decentralization.

The gold delivery vaults in Hong Kong facilitate trade settlements in Renminbi, allowing ASEAN countries to exchange Renminbi for gold bars, and the purity and weight can be verified in real-time through blockchain, thus bypassing the SWIFT system. The vaults in Singapore and Malaysia are associated with the "Gold Corridor" initiative, supporting regional trade and infrastructure loans, while the vaults being planned in Saudi Arabia will also enable settlements of oil, Renminbi, and gold, creating a cooperation development corridor across Asia and Africa.

These vaults store a massive amount of gold and can position the Renminbi as a gold-backed alternative currency, laying the groundwork for a vibrant future market.

According to a report by the Global Times, BRICS countries hold a significant share of the world's gold reserves and are recently depositing a large amount of gold into the Shanghai vault, establishing a shared custody network to promote mutual trust, with a clearing system that enables efficient trade settlement. This allows our RMB to possess a currency value similar to that of the US dollar in the last century, while also avoiding currency credit dilution, because you can always exchange RMB for physical gold stored in the country.

Unlike the current dollar dilemma, gold is simply gold; it cannot be frozen by electronic systems, nor is there a devaluation risk under the control of a regime. If you understand the establishment process of the Bretton Woods system in the last century, you would surely scoff at the notion of China wanting to create a gold-coin anchoring system. In fact, the main reason the RMB has not been able to become an international trade settlement or reserve currency in the past is the lack of credibility and the absence of an anchor.

The US dollar, or what was originally known as the greenback, had all its gold reserves stored in the United States. After the Americans announced the removal of the gold standard, the credibility of the US dollar gradually shifted towards oil settlements and the technological and military advantages of the United States. However, decades of facts have proven that these anchors have become increasingly different from gold, with value fluctuations being very illusory and becoming more and more so. This has provided room for US monetary policy manipulation and has given Americans the opportunity to repeatedly harvest the world's 'leeks' through the manipulation of the dollar tide - the world has long suffered from the US dollar scythe, and the only one who can relieve the world's troubles is China.

China's "Golden Corridor" is essentially a decentralized network of vaults, much like how Bitcoin's ledger is collectively recorded by distributed miners. Each vault located in different countries is interconnected, jointly recording the ownership, purity, and weight of every gold bar in the vaults. This design allows all countries that settle in Renminbi to ensure: the gold is in my hands, and I can exchange it in real time.

This will, like the super powerful Chinese manufacturing, once again give the RMB the most urgently needed thing: absolute credibility.

By joining the "Golden Corridor", all countries will be able to conduct international trade settlements through a gold-RMB system in the future, without involving any USD transactions in the entire process. This means that a new international settlement network has been established right under the nose of the SWIFT system.

If, in the future, gold equivalents further become HQLA, that is, high-quality liquid assets, then these gold assets can be regarded as equally safe as U.S. Treasury bonds. Countries within the "gold corridor" will no longer need to purchase any U.S. Treasury bonds; they will only need to hold more gold.

At that time, a completely dollar-free financial system can also be developed on this settlement network, as HQLA (High-Quality Liquid Assets) can be used for lending, collateral, and a range of fundamental financial operations, which are the cornerstones of a powerful financial network. Through these step-by-step operations, China will focus on one goal: to anchor the RMB to gold, triumphing over the dollar in the currency war, and at least coexisting with the dollar.

So, why does China continue to crack down on Crypto Assets now?

The answer is also very simple. After Trump took office, the way out for the United States was Crypto Assets, perhaps Bitcoin (BTC), or maybe other types of Crypto Assets. In the inevitable currency war, both China and the US are looking for the best anchor for their currencies. China has already chosen gold, so for China, the further it goes down this path, the less it can tolerate Bitcoin and other Crypto Assets.

Following this extreme argument, China will never open its Crypto Assets market in the future, while the United States will increasingly embrace Crypto Assets. Therefore, not only Bitcoin but also stablecoins are enemies of China.

Therefore, it is even more necessary to repeat this extreme statement: China and the United States will increasingly diverge in their currency anchoring strategies - this trend is unstoppable, and furthermore, let me add: China does not need to completely overthrow the dollar to win the future.