#PI On November 28, 2022, the People's Bank of China led a special meeting with thirteen departments including the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Although no new independent documents were released, it was clearly stated that stablecoins such as USDT are classified as a type of virtual money, and their related business activities fall under illegal financial activities. This means that purchasing USDT has been categorized as illegal financial activity under strict regulation in the country.

The meeting has also released stricter regulatory signals, indicating that buying and selling USDT in the future will no longer be considered ordinary violations, but may be classified as "illegal foreign exchange trading" or "aiding information network crimes". Regulation has officially shifted from "risk prevention" to the "criminal governance" stage. At the same time, regulation will focus on blocking the entire chain of information flow and capital flow, such as cleaning up virtual money traffic content on platforms, and banks upgrading anti-money laundering monitoring models to detect unusual transaction flows, in order to comprehensively curb USDT-related trading activities. USDT has previously been frequently used to bypass foreign exchange controls for cross-border capital flows, and its own reserve of high-risk assets has increased, with its stability rating downgraded to "very weak" by S&P, which is also an important reason for this regulatory focus.