Chinese Crypto Pioneers Dominate Global Market Despite Domestic Ban

China has taken a restrictive approach towards cryptocurrency, implementing bans on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2017, outlawing crypto trading platforms, and enforcing a nationwide crackdown on crypto mining in 2021. Despite these measures, Chinese entrepreneurs and investors have continued to play a significant role in the global crypto landscape. This paradox highlights how, despite the ban, Chinese entities own and influence some of the most powerful crypto ventures worldwide.

As the world moves towards adopting crypto as the future of finance, Chinese entrepreneurs have strategically positioned themselves to dominate the global crypto market. However, they have exited the stage at home, with the Chinese government effectively erasing the legal presence of crypto businesses within its borders. While retail crypto trading and mining have been curtailed within China, the country’s strategic entrepreneurs, tech investors, and state-linked entities have rechanneled their efforts offshore. By leveraging global regulatory arbitrage, Chinese crypto pioneers have headquartered their projects in crypto-friendly jurisdictions, enabling them to tap into global capital markets while skirting domestic restrictions.

Binance, founded by Changpeng Zhao, a Chinese-Canadian developer, is a prime example of this strategy. Although it relocated its headquarters several times due to regulatory pressures, the leadership and much of its early development were deeply rooted in China. Binance continues to hold significant influence, with a global user base of 270 million as of 2025. Similarly, TRON, founded by Justin Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur, is now officially headquartered in Singapore but was originally nurtured within the Chinese tech ecosystem. Despite crypto restrictions, Sun maintains strong political and business connections within China, and TRON 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. 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. Cobo, a leading crypto custody and wallet infrastructure provider, was founded by Discus Fish and Changhao Jiang. Originally based in Beijing, Cobo moved operations to Singapore after the 2021 crackdown, serving institutional clients with high-end security and DeFi yield strategies.

Matrixport, a digital asset financial services platform co-founded by Jihan Wu, offers 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.

CoinEx, founded 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. ViaBTC, a cryptocurrency mining pool founded by Haipo Yang, continues to operate on a global scale, offering services in over 130 countries. The company provides mining support for various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. ImToken, one of the most widely used mobile Ethereum wallets in Asia, was developed by a Chinese startup in Hangzhou. It has over 12 million users and supports multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Cosmos, and Bitcoin. While headquartered in Singapore now, the team behind ImToken remains largely Chinese.

KuCoin, a global cryptocurrency exchange founded by Chinese entrepreneurs Michael Gan and Eric Don, 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. Bybit, headquartered in Dubai, is a prominent cryptocurrency exchange platform that has rapidly ascended the ranks of the crypto industry since its inception. Founded by Ben Zhou, a Chinese entrepreneur, Bybit offers spot and derivatives trading, copy trading, Web3 wallet, and DeFi services. Bybit has experienced significant growth since its launch, positioning itself as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. OKX, founded by Star Xu, is a major global crypto exchange with millions of users. Like the other crypto exchanges in China, it moved operations offshore post-ban but retains Chinese leadership and team members.

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