2014-03-27

China to Effectively Shut Bitcoin Exchanges; Price Down 16% Hours After News Circulate

What China buys goes up in price. What China sells goes down in price. This regulation will force sales. Volume for the day at BTC China is up 25% in the past hour (20% of the daily volume up until now occurred in the past hour) and it is late in the evening in China.

From Caixin:
PBOC Rule Means Bitcoin Websites in China Must Close, Expert Says
The central bank has taken a step that at least one expert says means all bitcoin trading websites in the country must close.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) renewed its crackdown on bitcoins by requiring banks and payment companies to close all the accounts opened by the operators of websites that trade in the virtual currency by April 15.

This means people will only be able to use cash to buy bitcoins, an analyst who has been following the matter said, and will force all trading websites in the country to close.

"The only one way out for bitcoin websites is moving their servers abroad and using the service of foreign banks and payment companies," the expert said.

The requirement, which Caixin saw in a document the central bank's headquarters recently sent to regional offices, says money can be taken from the accounts before the deadline, but no deposits can be made. Banks that fail to close the accounts will be punished, the PBOC said, but it did not elaborate on what those punishments would be.

The central bank document listed 15 trading websites whose accounts must be closed.

From Bloomberg:
PBOC Orders Banks to Shut Bitcoin Exchange Accounts, Caixin Says
“I’m aware of the rumors circulating on the topic,” Bobby Lee, chief executive officer of BTC China, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the Asian nation, said by phone today. “I haven’t heard of anything else to confirm that. We are still waiting to see what happens.”

The restrictions would be the latest on the virtual currency from the Chinese monetary authority, which has sought to limit dealings in the software currency that may be used to launder money or evade capital controls. The central bank issued a notice on Dec. 5 barring financial institutions and payment companies from buying and selling Bitcoin or dealing in linked products.

The central bank didn’t respond to a faxed inquiry about today’s report. In a March 21 statement on its microblog, the PBOC denied unspecified media reports that it had banned Bitcoin trading.

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