China orders cryptocurrency exchanges to shut down

The state-backed association was set up by the central bank and has members such as banks, brokerages, funds and consumer finance companies.

In their statements, Huobi and OKCoin explain that they will utilize video verification systems prior to any withdrawals, apparently in an effort to combat potential money laundering.

The slump has been sparked by a global crackdown on the cryptocurrency space since the start of the month. On Chinese selling platforms, the decline was even more radical.

Cryptocurrency is a new market, and governments are still struggling to figure out how to regulate this new store of value.

The country’s regulators have reportedly issued an order to all local cryptocurrency exchanges to halt new user registration by midnight on September 15 and publicly notify users when they’ll formally close.

Also pressuring crypto prices were comments by JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon on 12 September that bitcoin was “a fraud” and “not a real thing”. In his words “It’s worse than tulip bulbs”. It won’t end well. “Someone is going to get killed”. While many developed countries in the West and Asia allow digital currencies to be accepted as payments and have rules about taxation of gains, some emerging countries view them as an illegal form of payment. “It will blow up”. Shah has added one more bitcoin to his total of five in the recent price-fall.

“China has not banned decentralised crypto-currencies like bitcoin and ether”, he said. They also exercise significant power over changes to the Bitcoin protocol.

“Blockchain might be the big disruptive idea, but Bitcoin itself is a disruptive threat to the big banks”.

Bitcoin is created and exchanged without the involvement of banks or governments.

The price of Bitcoin and almost all other cryptocurrencies has dropped sharply in the last couple of days.

The early updates received mixed reviews, however, with some social media commentators suggesting it is a way for Chinese regulators to prolong market manipulation. Many currencies regained substantial portions of those losses by this past weekend, only to find that the bitcoin ban caused prices to drop early in the new week. However, the original cryptocurrency has somewhat recovered since then and is now trading at $3,441, down a mere 1.5% from the same time yesterday.