Although China banned cryptocurrency trading in 2021, many mainland residents continue to use overseas accounts and exchanges to buy and sell digital currencies, in part to avoid capital controls and move assets overseas.

Tether’s USDT stablecoin, the world’s most used cryptocurrency, has been trading at a discount to the dollar at times since late September, said Dessislava Aubert, senior research analyst at blockchain data firm Kaiko. The discount came as China’s central bank took a series of easing measures aimed at curbing a deteriorating economic outlook, sending stock prices soaring.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is typically pegged 1:1 to an asset such as the U.S. dollar. They are used to conduct transactions and serve as a refuge from the often volatile price swings in tokens such as Bitcoin.

“If traders are rushing to convert back to fiat, it can be inferred that they are panic buying Chinese stocks,” said Livio Weng, CEO of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Hashkey.

Kaiko’s Aubert said that due to the ban, there is no USDT/CNY trading pair on cryptocurrency exchanges, making the U.S. dollar a de facto barometer of activity. The slight discount suggests an increase in selling demand for both the dollar and Tethers.

While it’s difficult to measure how much of USDT’s selling pressure is coming from Chinese investors on exchanges, other platforms present a clearer picture. Binance’s peer-to-peer market shows Chinese yuan merchants offering over-the-counter prices for USDT between 6.78 and 6.98 per yuan, while the offshore yuan is trading at 7.07 per dollar in traditional currency markets.

We can “see a correlation there with onshore A-share trading demand,” said Annabelle Huang, managing partner at Amber Group, a digital asset investment firm in Singapore. Some brokerages even operated during China’s recent Golden Week holiday to “attract new clients,” she said.

The demand isn’t just being driven by retail investors, said Laura Vidiella del Blanco, New York-based head of business development and strategy at crypto hedge fund MNNC Group, which says some of its institutional investors are shifting allocations toward Chinese stocks.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 21% from September 23 to September 30, the day before Chinese markets closed for a holiday.

“These are mostly allocators in Asia who are familiar with the market and have multiple strategies besides digital assets,” Vidiella del Blanco said.

China’s over-the-counter brokers are attracting “unprecedented” inflows this year, according to estimates by blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis Inc., suggesting strong demand for cryptocurrencies among Chinese investors despite the ongoing ban.

“It may be an incredible move for people who wish for a shorter National Day the first time,” said Amber’s Huang.