One of the biggest bitcoin exchanges in China, and the world, announced on Thursday that it would stop all trading, following new Chinese government regulations clamping down on crypto currencies.
BTCC – China's second bitcoin platform in terms of volume and the world's third largest – said on its Twitter account that "after carefully considering" the announcement by Chinese regulators, it will "stop all trading" on 30 September.
The Chinese central bank's announcement last week meant that Chinese firms would no longer be able to issue electronic currency units to raise funds.
Following the decision, the National Internet Finance Association of China said on Wednesday that there was "no legal basis for platforms which engage in the trading of various forms of 'virtual currencies'".
The association, which was created by the central bank, warned on its website that such currencies are "increasingly used as a tool in criminal activities such as money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling, and illegal fundraising".
The crypto currency sank late on Thursday
According to the Bitcoin Price Index, which offers an average of the various global platforms, the currency had plunged as low as $3,640 by Thursday evening, after peaking at an all-time high of around $4,359 on Tuesday.
In an attempt to halt capital flight overseas and clean up its financial system, Beijing began early in 2017 to tighten controls on bitcoin trading platforms by restricting, in particular, transactions considered excessively speculative.
The two main Chinese platforms, BTCC and Okcoin, which operate in Yuan, account for 22 percent of the world trade in bitcoins, according to reference website bitcoinity.org
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