The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has stepped up its fight against illegal activities in the field of crypto trading. To this end, the country has banned foreign platforms from offering their services to local investors and strengthened monitoring of operations, Reuters reports citing the regulator's statements.
The message indicates services related to cryptocurrencies cannot be offered. As a result, financial institutions, payment companies and IT companies are prohibited from conducting transactions in cryptocurrencies.
The Central Bank has explained all services that allow exchanging traditional currencies for digital currencies or cryptos with each other are considered illegal. Among other things, this applies to OTC crypto exchange services provided by, for instance, Huobi, OKEx and Binance. Following the cryptocurrency trading ban in 2017, these services have become the main cryptocurrency trading tool for Chinese citizens.
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Separately, it has been reported cryptocurrency derivatives trading services cannot be offered. Chinese residents trading cryptocurrencies may be prosecuted, the central bank has warned. Journalist Colin Wu has pointed out that the latest statements from the People's Bank of China are full of details and for the first time include mention of the stablecoin USDT as an illegal financial mechanism.
Notably, the price of Bitcoin has dropped 5.5% in an hour after the news was released to below $43,000.