The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has continued its crackdown on trading in digital currencies. Three major organizations – The Bank of China (not to be confused with the PBOC), Chinese Construction Bank and top online payments service Tenpay have announced they will no longer allow clients to use their accounts to conduct transactions in Bitcoin and Litecoin.
The announcements are the same made by other Chinese businesses refusing digital currency clients. A rough translation of the statement reads:
“To protect the property rights and interests of the public and prevent money laundering risks, from now on, our customers — organizations and individuals — are forbidden from the recharge and withdrawals, purchase and sale of bitcoins, virtual currency and other trading funds using their account. Any customers found to have broken this rule may have their accounts closed.”
Earlier this week BTC China, the country’s largest bitcoin market exchange, ceased doing business with China’s Merchant Bank, resulting in a reactionary and drastic 10% plunge in the value of bitcoin. The halting of business was intended to protect the security of BTC China’s clients’ funds.
As of today no major changes in the value of Bitcoin has changed. As one writer put it, “The latest revelations will affect the short time term but, in the long run, if Bitcoin wants to be a stable currency then it may arguably be better without the threat of Chinese regulation hanging over it. The big question is whether other countries will take as strong a position on it as China.”
Regulating bitcoin in China has been a rocky road, including the April 22 meeting between the central bank and executives of over 20 commercial banks and third-party systems dealing with bitcoin, where they were demanded to suspend accounts and halt transactions dealing in bitcoin.
As these three major players drop lay down the law on bitcoin, a drop in price is to be expected. We will keep you updated on the situation as it unfolds. Don’t we always?