China has stopped banking institutions and payment firms from giving services related to crypto transactions, and warned people against crypto trading.
It is China’s latest drive to decrease what was a booming digital trading market. Under the ban, banking groups and online payment platforms, must not give clients any service connected to cryptocurrency, like trading, clearing and settlement, three industry groups said in a joint statement this Tuesday.
“Crypto currency prices have risen and plummeted, and trading of cryptocurrency has continued, seriously harming the safety of people’s property and harming the normal financial order,” they said in the statement.
China has previously banned ICOs (initial coin offerings) and crypto exchanges but did not ban individuals from buying cryptocurrencies.
“The institutions must not give saving, trust or other services of cryptocurrency, nor give financial products related to cryptos,” the statement also read.
The moves were not China’s first against digital assets. In 2017, the country shut down its crypto exchanges, suffocating the market that had made up 90% of the world’s bitcoin trading.
In June of 2019, the People’s Bank of China put out a statement saying it would stop access to all domestic and foreign exchanges and ICO websites, in an attempt to discourage cryptocurrency trading.
The statement also stressed the risks of cryptocurrencies, saying that they “are not founded on true value,” and that their prices are easily manipulated.
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