China’s continued crackdown on the crypto market has taken off almost $300 billion worth from the total digital currency market since Friday after a major mining hub closed down its operations. As of 10:47 p.m. ET yesterday, at $32,735.71 Bitcoin was down by 6.6 percent, coming off its 24-hour low of $31,179.05, according to data from CoinDesk. China has been on her toes, increasing efforts to crack down the cryptocurrency industry in the country.
According to media reports, authorities in the province of Sichuan, on Friday, ordered that all Bitcoin mining activities be shut down. Sichuan has one of the biggest mining operations in all of the country, and shutting down its mining operations is as good as shutting down all mining operations in China. As of Sunday, many Bitcoin mines in China’s Southwestern province were shut down. This was reported by the Global Times.
Before the crackdown in the province of Sichuan, other provinces where Bitcoin mining thrived were also sought after and shut down. Some of these provinces that have already been shut down include Inner Mongolia. Last month, Beijing called for a crackdown on Bitcoin mining operations.
On Monday, China’s central bank – the People’s Bank of China, said that it spoke to payment services run by Jack Ma’s Ant Group subsidiary Alibaba, and other major payments and financial services. The apex bank mentioned that it urged the aforementioned financial services not to provide cryptocurrency-related services such as payments, account openings, clearing, etc.
China’s ban on cryptocurrency is not new. Chinese traders embraced buying and selling of digital currencies after local currency exchanges were banned in 2017. Crypto trading in China, however, had always been very complicated before it was banned. The continuous crackdowns show that Chinese regulators mean business and are serious about mounting pressure on financial institutions that mine Bitcoin or are associated with it in any way.
After the ban, traders in China devised a new way of trading. They used platforms like Alipay to buy cryptocurrency. The People’s Bank of China’s talk with Alibaba and other major financial institutions could be a sugar-coated warning and is a way to eradicate the loophole invented by traders.
Bitcoin has been down 16 percent since on Friday after Sichuan authorities ordered miners to shut down their operations. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum’s network Ether and Ripple’s XRP were also down by Monday.
