This summer, word started spreading over Chinese social media about a conference in Dali, a city nestled among 4,000-meter peaks in the country¡¯s southwest.
The organizers expected fewer than 200 attendees, but ended up selling out the 1,000-person venue only to see more than double that number ultimately show up for the August event. The topic of the gathering: cryptocurrencies, a sector China¡¯s government declared largely illegal a year ago.
Before the clampdown, China was emerging as the epicenter of the cryptocurrency world, spawning giant exchanges like Binance Holdings and the biggest bitcoin mining firms. Beijing¡¯s move to banish cryptocurrency trading and mining, announced in September 2021, seemed poised to snuff out the entire domestic industry.
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