🔍 Ministry of State Security: The “anonymity” of virtual currencies is a false proposition
On September 28, the WeChat Official Account “Ministry of State Security” posted a security alert. The focus is on counterintelligence.
The article highlights three risk points of virtual currencies: a “breeding ground” for money-laundering crimes, a “cover” for cyber attacks, and an “accomplice” in espionage and theft of state secrets. The third one is the most serious. The exact wording is that overseas intelligence agencies promote the circulation of virtual currencies as being covert and hard to verify, using this to dispel concerns among personnel being approached for recruitment or defection. They then use virtual currencies to deliver espionage funding, posing a severe threat to national security.
Then it “took away” the two words “anonymity.” The Ministry of State Security said that the so-called “anonymous attribute” of virtual currencies is, at its root, a false proposition.
The rationale is quite straightforward. Any transaction is permanently and publicly recorded on a public ledger; once it’s on-chain, it can’t be removed or changed. The “anonymity” layer at the address level only achieves temporary separation between a wallet and a real identity. The real leak is the exchange. Converting virtual currency to fiat currency, or swapping between virtual currencies, requires trading platforms and payment interfaces, which will leave behind device IDs and network IP addresses. Professional institutions use on-chain data and big-data matching to trace addresses back to individuals.
On the same topic, the financial regulatory authorities describe it as an enforcement stance, while national security authorities frame it as a form of characterization.
The draft was prepared seven months ago. On February 6, 2026, the People’s Bank of China and eight other departments issued the “Notice on Further Preventing and Handling Risks Related to Virtual Currencies and Other Matters,” document no. Yinfa〔2026〕42. There’s a sentence in it that’s easy to skip: strengthen cross-department integrated research and analysis and information sharing, and establish information-sharing and cross-verification mechanisms, so that online monitoring, offline investigation, and fund monitoring connect effectively. Reading the two documents together: the earlier one sets up monitoring, while the later one provides public characterization.
Document No. 42 also includes a point that people in business must memorize. Without relevant departments’ legally and regulation-compliant approval, no entity or individual—domestic or overseas—may issue stablecoins pegged to the RMB abroad. The line of offshore RMB stablecoins has already been closed in the documents.
Here’s another comparison. On the mainland side, the door is welded shut. On the Hong Kong side, they issue licenses. As of this February, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has approved 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms. The same set of technology is illegal financial activity here, but a licensed business in Hong Kong.
The price hasn’t moved. When I wrote this, four BTC price sources were between $83,743 and $83,819, up 0.34% over the past 24 hours. ETH is 2,687.6, basically flat.
A single alert-type article is meant to remind. Publishing them back-to-back is building expectations. When the national security authorities’ stance is moved downward, it usually follows specific cases. What to watch is the cases that come next.
$BTC $ETH
#中本聪国际社区Baoluo币商资本 #Bitcoin #监管
On September 28, the WeChat Official Account “Ministry of State Security” posted a security alert. The focus is on counterintelligence.
The article highlights three risk points of virtual currencies: a “breeding ground” for money-laundering crimes, a “cover” for cyber attacks, and an “accomplice” in espionage and theft of state secrets. The third one is the most serious. The exact wording is that overseas intelligence agencies promote the circulation of virtual currencies as being covert and hard to verify, using this to dispel concerns among personnel being approached for recruitment or defection. They then use virtual currencies to deliver espionage funding, posing a severe threat to national security.
Then it “took away” the two words “anonymity.” The Ministry of State Security said that the so-called “anonymous attribute” of virtual currencies is, at its root, a false proposition.
The rationale is quite straightforward. Any transaction is permanently and publicly recorded on a public ledger; once it’s on-chain, it can’t be removed or changed. The “anonymity” layer at the address level only achieves temporary separation between a wallet and a real identity. The real leak is the exchange. Converting virtual currency to fiat currency, or swapping between virtual currencies, requires trading platforms and payment interfaces, which will leave behind device IDs and network IP addresses. Professional institutions use on-chain data and big-data matching to trace addresses back to individuals.
On the same topic, the financial regulatory authorities describe it as an enforcement stance, while national security authorities frame it as a form of characterization.
The draft was prepared seven months ago. On February 6, 2026, the People’s Bank of China and eight other departments issued the “Notice on Further Preventing and Handling Risks Related to Virtual Currencies and Other Matters,” document no. Yinfa〔2026〕42. There’s a sentence in it that’s easy to skip: strengthen cross-department integrated research and analysis and information sharing, and establish information-sharing and cross-verification mechanisms, so that online monitoring, offline investigation, and fund monitoring connect effectively. Reading the two documents together: the earlier one sets up monitoring, while the later one provides public characterization.
Document No. 42 also includes a point that people in business must memorize. Without relevant departments’ legally and regulation-compliant approval, no entity or individual—domestic or overseas—may issue stablecoins pegged to the RMB abroad. The line of offshore RMB stablecoins has already been closed in the documents.
Here’s another comparison. On the mainland side, the door is welded shut. On the Hong Kong side, they issue licenses. As of this February, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has approved 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms. The same set of technology is illegal financial activity here, but a licensed business in Hong Kong.
The price hasn’t moved. When I wrote this, four BTC price sources were between $83,743 and $83,819, up 0.34% over the past 24 hours. ETH is 2,687.6, basically flat.
A single alert-type article is meant to remind. Publishing them back-to-back is building expectations. When the national security authorities’ stance is moved downward, it usually follows specific cases. What to watch is the cases that come next.
$BTC $ETH
#中本聪国际社区Baoluo币商资本 #Bitcoin #监管
