[blueblisters]

I have always imagined China to have more sophisticated tools for monitoring financial flows than Soviet Russia. Crypto (at least Bitcoin) isn't all that anonymous, nor outside CCP control so long as there are exchanges and miners located inside China. For instance, there were (probably unfounded) fears that the CCP could control Bitcoin by proxy if more than 50% of the hash rate was owned by Chinese miners.

I suspect the recent crackdown is more related to a fear of uncontrolled capital flight due to regulatory changes and anticipated slowdown of the economy.