Brief English explanation of the announcement: (I am not a good translator so correct me if necessary)
1. ICOs = illegal fundraising. Bitcoin and Ethereum are not currencies and should not be used as currencies in transactions.
2. No organizations and individuals are allowed to start ICOs, and ongoing ICOs should stop immediately with investments send back to investors.
3. (Important) No cryptocurrency exchanges are allowed to offer currency-to-"cryptocurrency" exchange any longer, a.k.a. e.g. no CNY-to-Bitcoin or Bitcoin-to-CNY exchange allowed.
4. Financial institutes that are not banks must not offer any related services.
5. Investors into ICOs must take full responsibility into their actions (that is to say, if you lose your assets through such "investment", no laws would protect you)
6. blah...
If this is accurate, point number 3 is a pretty big concern and will impact trading in China massively.
Yes this is accurate. see my translation also. no fiat to crypto, not even USD.
I posted a longer translation in #12@cnLedger, a popular source for Chinese cryptocurrency and Bitcoin news, made this clarification just now:
5/ To clarify, in the notice PBoC used two different notions: Crypto-Currency (BTC, ETH) and Tokens. ICO ban =/= Crypto-Currency ban.
https://twitter.com/cnLedger/status/904638606857330688It sounds to me like this is aimed strictly at ICOs, not cryptocurrencies. But naturally, this is a developing story and I don't think anyone has a full grasp on the ruling. Also, the PBOC changes their mind all the time...