China FUD is at it again. The country’s central bank PBoC has asked domestic financial institutions to promptly cut payment channels for crypto trading. The People’s Bank of China reportedly gathered a group of banks and mobile payment providers including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Construction Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, the Industrial Bank, and mobile payments app AliPay, for a meeting and urged them to stop providing financial services related to cryptocurrency.
Reiterating its 2017 stance, the PBoC further asked these platforms to sever links to the funding channels of crypto over-the-counter [OTC] merchants. It added that the banking establishments should monitor if any OTC traders are leveraging their services to offer on- and off-ramps for Chinese traders in a p2p manner.
Following the development, popular crypto investor, Lark Davis tweeted,
“China cracking down on the bank accounts of bitcoin OTC desks, this is getting serious!!!”
This comes right after Beijing pulled the plug on the massive Bitcoin mining operation of Sichuan province. It is yet another move by the Chinese lawmakers towards its effort to crack down on cryptocurrency activities in the country.
The PBoC cited concerns related to risky activities around cryptocurrency trading and went on to claim the repercussions have been severe disruption of the country’s financial infrastructure. According to the central bank, crypto trading has generated the risk of illegal money outflow across the border as well as money laundering.
Bitcoin Tumbles to China FUD yet again
The cryptocurrency has faced severe losses over the past couple of months as the country’s suppression of trading and mining activities intensified. The shut down of mining operations in the country led to a drop in Bitcoin’s hash rate which spiraled back to levels last seen in November 2020.
This time again, Bitcoin took a fresh hit after registering a decline of over 5% in the last 24-hours. The coin was now trading at $32,682.