Matti Robinson
11 Sep 2017 10:59
China has expressed that it will disallow the use of virtual currency, or cryptocurrency, in the country, Wall Street Journal reports. Previously the world's most populous country had banned ICOs (initial coin offerings) which allows citizens to acquire funds via virtual currencies.
China, who love to control their market, have been struggling with the concept of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. They are almost impossible to control and monitor, and can be used very easily to move funds out of the country. The authorities are also afraid that Bitcoin and others increase money laundering within its borders, and even affect the value or Chinese juan.
Bitcoin has been gaining strength recently, and in the past few months it has doubled its value. This probably is one of the reasons governments, at least the authoritarian ones more prone to control monetary markets, are interested in fighting cryptocurrencies.
According to country's largest Bitcoin exchanges, BTCC and Huobi, they hadn't yet received requests to shut down their services. Even if China follows through with what WSJ claims, it won't affect for example over-the-counter (OTC) Bitcoin transactions, sources say to Bloomberg.
That however limits who can get into the game, because OTC transactions are typically very high volume. After Friday reports Bitcoin value dropped from $4600 to under $4000 but has since bounced back to what it was a week ago, at approximately $4200.