
Alteratively
This is to slow down the exit of money from China.
China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) vowed on Tuesday to clean up what it sees as bad and blatantly misleading marketing of virtual currencies. Beijing has repeatedly declared that using and mining virtual currencies are illegal in the Middle Kingdom, making related activity suspect from the …
I think its more to protect the average Chinese from scam artists.. Shady investment salespeople have always made a beeline to the money and China's had plenty of it in recent years. The Chinese, like many of us, regard crypto as a Ponzi scheme -- crypto is an unregulated security of no inherent value which is just asking for trouble (and regulation -- the SEC is showing a serious interest in crypto vendors in the US).
Unlike the Chinese we can't invest in Chinese enterprises at the moment, its against the law ('we' being Americans; I'd guess that the UK follows us in lock step as usual). We've currently got the problem of too much cash chasing too little value -- asset inflation -- so if we could stop the average Chinese adding fuel to the fire that would be great. I don't think we can, though.