ICO NEWS: Alibaba-owned Taobao bans crypto-related products

April 17

The blanket ban, that includes services relating to ICOs (initial coin offerings), will come into effect on April 17. This latest update was released on Tuesday.

The changes will are an extension of previous measures taken by the platform to limit the sale of cryptocurrency-related products.

Virtual currencies already prohibited 

The previous ban prohibited the sale of individual virtual currencies. Whereas this ban extends to any product or service that relies on blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology is what cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on to function. All cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies are powered by blockchain technology.

Selling cryptocurrency mining devices along with offering mining services remains prohibited per the original ban.

Stores that don’t abide by the new rules will be punished, Taobao said in a public statement. It cited the clampdown on ICOs by the People's Bank of China last September as justification for the move.

Not everyone is expected to obey the rules, though. Quite a few services relating to ICOs stayed active amongst the individual stores operating under the Taobao roof, so to speak, even after last year’s PBoC ban.

Facebook, Google, Twitter

Some even knowingly helped ICO projects draw up fraudulent white papers using fake information.

Taobao follows in the footsteps of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, by banning crypto products.

All of whom have either banned crypto ads or have announced their intention to, respectively.