Investors Buy the China Ban

September was a rocky month for crypto and markets in general. This week China's expanded ban on crypto activity led Bitcoin lower (even though it was initially announced on September 15).

Quick summary - crypto is no stranger to Chinese bans. Just this June, crypto mining was banned causing panic in the markets. That being said, the new ban does introduce a few more severe restrictions:

• Chinese crypto exchanges such as Huobi were forced to stop serving customers from mainland China
• CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and TradingView are now blocked by China's internet firewall
• Law enforcement agencies such as the Chinese Supreme People's Court signed the policy, which had not been the case with previous bans, pointing to more strict measures being taken

How is the market reacting? As the news of the ban surfaced in Western media on September 24, Bitcoin's price crashed 9%. Diving into on-chain data, however, it seems many investors took this as an opportunity to accumulate.

Key stats - 

• The number of addresses holding one or more Bitcoin reached a four-month high, accelerating in the days after the China ban
• Q3 2020 saw a similar drop and subsequent rebound in number of addresses holding on or more Bitcoin, with investors accumulating at lower prices