Shanghai police said they dismantled a major underground banking operation that used virtual currency to facilitate illegal cross-border foreign exchange settlement, with nearly 20 billion yuan involved and 19 suspects arrested. Investigators said the group, led by a suspect surnamed Liu, had operated since August 2024 using a "RMB–virtual currency–foreign currency" transfer chain to complete currency exchanges and collect service fees. Police also broke up a separate cross-border illegal payment and settlement case involving virtual currency, where a gang allegedly ran a platform for cross-border remittance, currency exchange, and virtual credit card issuance and settlement. Authorities said the scheme generated profits through virtual currency top-ups, multi-currency exchange services, and virtual credit card issuance, with more than 200 million yuan involved and nine arrests made. Since the start of this year, Shanghai police said they have cracked multiple new economic crime cases involving virtual currency, arresting more than 70 suspects in total and uncovering more than 20 billion yuan across the cases.