China’s Stablecoin Underground Hits $104 Billion Despite Beijing’s Crypto Ban - forkast.news

The reported scale of China's stablecoin activity — $104 billion despite Beijing's ban on cryptocurrency trading — suggests that formal restrictions have not eliminated demand for dollar-linked digital assets. Rather, that demand appears to have shifted to informal channels, including peer-to-peer networks and offshore platforms that operate beyond the reach of domestic regulators.

For markets, the figure matters less as a precise measure than as a signal. It implies a persistent, hard-to-police source of flows between the yuan and dollar-denominated tokens, which can complicate capital-control enforcement and blur the picture regulators use to assess currency pressure. Stablecoin volumes of this kind can also feed into offshore trading and settlement activity that is difficult to trace.

What to watch: how Chinese authorities respond, whether enforcement targets onshore intermediaries or offshore venues, and whether other jurisdictions tighten stablecoin rules in turn. The broader takeaway is that banning trading does not necessarily remove the underlying demand — it often redirects it into less visible channels.