When China bans Bitcoin/cryptocurrency, it will simply pop up somewhere else.

We are already seeing this with the Japanese, US, and South Korean Exchanges. All three are exploding in volume in the last week or so.

Check out this chart from CryptoCompare:

Look who is up there at the top.

As you can see Japan now accounts for over half of all Bitcoin trading volume, and guess what, Bitcoin is officially legal tender over there!

China is now muddling around the 6% mark.

Hong Kong is another place that is set to be a major beneficiary of the Chinese cryptocurrency trading ban.

Reports are already coming out of plans to build more exchanges and more crypto-related infrastructure in the region with the anticipation of many new users coming from China.

In regards to Chinese regulation, first it was ICOs, then it was exchanges, now they are saying peer-to-peer exchanges will also be prohibited.

Though I am not sure how they would enforce that one, basically anyone with an internet connection and a messaging or chat account could theoretically send Bitcoin in exchange for some good or service.

That one seems pretty hard to police, though I imagine they will impose strict penalties for violators. After all, we are talking about China, the country with more suspected death penalties carried out in recent years than every other country, combined.

However, taking all this into account one thing keeps popping up in my mind...

China banning cryptocurrencies is akin to what happened with Prohibition in the United States.

What happened with Prohibition, did it make people stop consuming alcohol?

Not really.

Alcohol was officially banned from 1920 to 1933, but it did not go away, it simply moved other places and also underground. Eventually leading way to organized crime.

I look at cryptocurrency the same way.

The genie is already out of the bottle here and it can't be put back in, governments have little choice but to try and work with the technology for everyone's benefit.

Any attempts at eliminating it will likely be ineffective and only further developers and users to constantly find ways around the regulations.

It makes much more sense to embrace it than to try to put your finger in the hole of leaky dam in order to prevent the oncoming flood.