Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Bitcoins tumbled in value after Chinese authorities acted to curb trading in the virtual currency.
The government has banned domestic third-party payment companies from providing clearing services for virtual currency trading platforms, according to a report in the China Business News.
BTCChina, the country's biggest Bitcoin trading platform, and other Bitcoin exchanges in the country rely on third-party providers to handle the transactions for bitcoin trading as they are not licensed to handle clearing services that enable investors to deposit and withdraw their money.
BTCChina, on its Twitter-like Weibo account, told users it "has no choice but to stop accepting yuan deposits".
Although traders can still make deposits in other currencies, the move has pummelled volumes on BTC and slashed bitcoin's value.
Prices on BTCChina stood at 2845 yuan ($468) each early on Wednesday, down 60pc from their high of 7,588 yuan in November. 
Chart from BTCChina showing sharp fall in value of Bitcoins
Chinese speculators have poured money into Bitcoins this year, driving the BTCChina price up 9,122pc from January 1 to November 30 and making the country at times the world's biggest Bitcoin market.

Authorities have raised concerns and two weeks ago China's central bank ordered financial institutions not to provide Bitcoin-related services and products and cautioned against its potential use in money-laundering.
Bitcoin is a form of cryptography-based e-money that offers a largely anonymous payment system.

No comments: