Chinese travel to HongKong in great numbers to purchase crypto
Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu
The Chinese border has reopened since the beginning of the year, including entry to Hong Kong. 80% of visitors to the popular coastal city-state with European influences (Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997) are Chinese. A very large proportion of them admit that they have come for one thing lately: to buy crypto, which is still prohibited in the mainland.
The Chinese economy had a very good first quarter when it reopened after three years of strict Covid-19 restrictions, but seems to be headed for a very bad second quarter now.
The “business war” with the United States mean that the government in Beijing will probably soon have to admit that “deflation” (the falling prices of goods and services) is a possibility this year.
The reasons for this are the high unemployment among young people (around 20% of them currently have no job) and the real estate market, which seems to have become a bubble that’s about to burst. Finished but empty apartment blocks can now be found all over the country.
USDT
In order to safeguard their money, which would lose value in case of deflation, many Chinese have been trying to travel to Hong Kong lately to buy USDT or other stablecoins pegged to the US dollar.
Roger Li, founder of Hong Kong’s One Satoshi stores that offer crypto for sale, admitted in an interview with the Financial Times that demand from China is steadily increasing as the Chinese economy slumps.
“I would say around 30 per cent of new inquiries actually come from mainland China customers,” said Li. “What we advise them is that they will be able to trade with us soon, probably the regulatory landscape in China is going to change.”
Merton Lam, who runs two crypto stores in Hong Kong called Crypto HK, said when the border opened in February, a mere 5% of his customers were from China.
Now it’s probably like half.
