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Here’s How Mainland China Allows Chinese Traders Access to BTC

Blockchain and Crypto have a complicated status in China: Beijing says no to crypto but yes to blockchain. It bans trading yet builds infrastructure.
Now, with Hong Kong offering regulated crypto markets, insiders say a loophole is emerging.
If China already allows investors to buy U.S. stocks through its Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, why not bitcoin? The key, one expert argued on stage at Consensus Hong Kong, is control, and Beijing may have just found a way to keep it.
In China, there are two systems for mainland investors to buy and sell stock outside China. First, there’s QDII, which allows select investors to buy U.S. ETFs using RMB.
Then there’s also the Shanghai-Hong Kong Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect, which let Chinese investors buy and sell Hong Kong stocks through mainland securities firms, with all trades settled in RMB.
«The key [with these systems] is that capital never flows freely out of China, and if you apply this same logic to crypto, there’s no reason it couldn’t work the same way,» Yifan He, CEO of Red Date technology, said on stage at Consensus Hong Kong.
He emphasized that the biggest regulatory hurdle isn’t crypto itself, but capital controls, ensuring that funds don’t move freely in and out of China.
These capital controls are in place as they prevent excessive currency fluctuations and capital flight, in order to maintain the stability and value of the RMB. They are also one of the reasons why Hong Kong’s crypto ETFs, with their in-kind redemptions, were not allowed on the mainland.
«What’s the difference between a Hong Kong-regulated stock and a Hong Kong-regulated crypto asset?» He continued. «If they have a system for you to buy and sell in RMB, but never move money outside China, then it’s just another regulated investment product.»
This system would not allow Chinese investors to self-custody their crypto. Instead, purchases would be held by an intermediary, such as a licensed securities firm.
«They buy crypto directly, but it’s not like they’re holding it themselves,» He said. «The security company in the middle actually holds it for you.»
This model aligns with China’s approach to stock and ETF investments.
Just as mainland investors can trade U.S. ETFs through QDII but never take direct custody, they could gain exposure to crypto without owning the underlying assets – no money moves across borders.
For a nation with 200 million retail investors and an economy in need of stimulus, regulated crypto access through Hong Kong’s sandbox might offer Beijing a calculated compromise
Blockchain vs. Crypto
China has long been a proponent of blockchain technology, while taking a cold approach to crypto.
«We don’t allow guns in China, but we can still make steel,» He explained as an analogy. «The technology is not regulated so that you can build all kinds of applications. But when some application triggers regulations, that’s different.»
But based on his conversations with financial regulators, this could be changing.
«I see some signal from financial regulators,» He said. «They’re beginning to talk about Bitcoin, saying we need to pay more attention and do more research on digital assets.»
Could this lead to broader adoption? Two years ago, He would have said ‘zero chance.’
«Now, I’d say there’s more than a 50% chance in three years,» He concluded.
And you can take those odds to Polymarket.
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Canary Capital Files for Tron ETF With Staking Capabilities

Canary Capital is looking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of Tron’s native token, TRX, according to a filing.
The hedge fund submitted a Form S-1 for the Canary Staked TRX ETF with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. As the name suggests, the fund — if approved — would stake portions of its holdings.
This would be done through third-party providers, with BitGo acting as custodian for the assets. The fund would track TRX’s spot price using CoinDesk Indices calculations.
A proposed ticker as well as the management fee for the product have not been shared yet.
Issuers had initially filed applications for spot ethereum (ETH) ETFs with the staking feature included but removed them in an amended filing later in order to receive approval from the SEC on their proposals.
While the SEC under former Chair Gary Gensler was strictly against staking, issuers have grown more hopeful that they will be able to add the feature to their spot ether funds, among others, with the appointment of crypto-friendly Chair Paul Atkins.
A decision on a February request from Grayscale to allow staking in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) was postponed by the regulator just a few days ago.
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Feds Mistakenly Order Estonian HashFlare Fraudsters to Self-Deport Ahead of Sentencing

Just four months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the two Estonian founders of HashFlare were seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — an instruction that directly contradicted a court order for the men to remain in Washington state until they are sentenced in August.
In a joint letter to the court last week, lawyers for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin told District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that both men had received “disturbing communications” from DHS ordering them to leave the country immediately.
“It is time for you to leave the United States,” an email to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 read. “DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”
The email, included with the letter filed last week, threatened both men with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and any other lawful options available to the federal government” if they stayed in the country. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike have received over the past few days.
Ironically, Potapenko and Turogin are not in the U.S. of their own volition — they were extradited from their native Estonia at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Though they initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, in February they both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. They have both been in the Seattle area on bond since last July.
“Although there is nothing Ivan and Sergei would want more than to immediately go home, they understood that they are also under Court order to remain in King County,” wrote Mark Bini, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote in the pair’s joint letter to the court. Bini did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
In his letter, Bini said DHS’s emails had caused both Potapenko and Turogin «significant anxiety.”
“We and our clients have all seen recent news. Immigration authorities make mistakes, and individuals who should not be in custody end up in custody, sometimes even deported to places where they should not be deported,” Bini wrote.
Six days after Bini’s letter to the judge, the DOJ filed its own letter with the court saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.
“This should provide ample time for the sentencing to take place,” the prosecution’s letter said.
DHS did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their lawyers have said that they will request to be sentenced to time served, meaning no additional time in prison, and to be sent home to Estonia “immediately.”
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CoinDesk Weekly Recap: EigenLayer, Kraken, Coinbase, AWS

Following last week’s tariff-caused drama, this was a relatively quiet week in crypto. Bitcoin remained stable around $84k. The CoinDesk 20, which tracks about 80% of the market, was up about 4% in the last seven days — i.e. nothing historic.
Still, plenty happened. On Tuesday, much of crypto went offline because of a tech issue at AWS, showing how the decentralized economy isn’t always that decentralized. Shaurya Malwa reported the news early. Bitcoin and other major cryptos slipped on bad news for Nvidia, Omkar Godbole reported.
Mantra, a project focused on real world assets, lost 90% of its value. Explanations varied (the company said it was due to “force liquidations” exchanges).
Meanwhile, EigenLayer, a restaking leader, rolled out a “slashing” feature meant to address security concerns (Sam Kessler reported). OKX, a major exchange, announced plans to set up in California following a $500 million settlement with the SEC over claims it operated previously in the U.S. without a money transmitter license. Cheyenne Ligon had that story.
In less good news, Kraken laid off “hundreds” of staff ahead of an expected IPO. And Coinbase became embroiled in a “front running controversy” linked to a curiously named token on its Base L2. Privacy advocates reacted with alarm to rumors that Binance was about to delist Zcash following a long decline in the value of privacy coins.
In D.C. news, Jesse Hamilton reported on a new wave of crypto lobbyists flooding the capital. Some asked if there are now too many trade groups and whether they really all could be effective.
Friends With Benefits, a buzzy social club for creative technologists, launched a new program to build Web3 products for music, film, publishing and other fun activities. (I wrote that one.)
Of course, there was plenty happening in the economy and markets (Trump’s disgust for Fed chair Powell fed into the unease). But, in crypto, it was pretty much business as usual. Fortunes won, fortunes lost, fortunes deferred.
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