Last week, a fren who was in business almost took a tumble—he went through unfamiliar channels to sell 2600U in order to profit from the exchange rate difference. Just as the money arrived, his bank card was locked, and all the cash flow for restocking in the store was completely frozen.

Since November last year, regulatory actions have become increasingly intensive. The central bank has clearly stated that it will continue to crack down on illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies, and more than 8,000 cryptocurrency-related accounts were frozen that month. Such incidents are now quite common.

fren was called in to cooperate with the investigation, and the police asked a few questions:

"Do you know the legal risks of virtual currency trading?"
Our country hasn't said that trading itself is illegal, but if issues arise, we have to bear the consequences ourselves—this is clearly stated in the judicial interpretation by the two high courts in 2024.

"Why should the funds involved in the case be refunded?"
The 26,000 in his account was identified as ill-gotten gains, and he had to negotiate compensation with the victim. In the end, he only refunded 10,000 to unfreeze the account.

"Will it affect personal credit?"
Level 1 involved cards will implicate all accounts under the name, while level 2 cards have relatively less impact. Freezing does not equate to having a criminal record; if suspicion is excluded, then there is no problem.

After reviewing this case, I summarized a few practical experiences:

The channel should preferably have been in the industry for more than a year; there should be at least 5000 real transaction records as a baseline; a healthy flow is indicated when inflow exceeds outflow; the platform must have real-name authentication, and the payer should be fixed; prefer using electronic wallets (like Alipay); use bank cards as little as possible.

Why are electronic wallets safer?

Bank cards are the key focus of regulation, while electronic wallets fall into the consumption scenario, allowing for dispersed small amounts of withdrawals, which can generally pass smoothly. What really matters is not the speed of withdrawals, but rather a stable channel that hasn't faced freezing issues for over a year.

Central bank data shows that there were more than 32,000 cases of virtual currency fraud last year, involving an amount of 8.9 billion.

Don't take risks for a few dollars in exchange rate differences; don't touch money that comes from unknown sources. Money that you earn is only yours when you've pocketed it.