Illustration by Tech in Asia’s Andre Gunawan.
The news (from CNBC):
- One of China’s top bitcoin exchanges announced this evening that it is shutting down. “After carefully considering the announcement published by Chinese regulators on 09/04, BTCChina Exchange will stop all trading on 09/30,” it said in a tweet.
- BTCC’s shutdown comes after authorities earlier this month banned fundraising via ICOs in the country.
- Bitcoin is dropping sharply on this news. At time of publishing, one bitcoin is worth US$3,560.
(Updated one day later: Two more exchanges, Yunbi and ViaBTC, have just announced they’re shutting down too. Yunbi closes on the 20th; ViaBTC on the 30th.)
Why it matters:
- It comes ahead of a rumored crackdown by Chinese authorities on all forms of cryptocurrencies.
- An unverified report at the weekend said that all cryptocurrency exchanges that exchange digital currencies for Chinese yuan will be shuttered.
- Individual ownership of bitcoin will likely not be outlawed, but it’ll be hard for Chinese consumers to buy any form of cryptocurrency.
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