Nevertheless, the sources said that regulators were not giving a clear message on when the shutdown would occur, the online publication continues. One regulator said that the decision had already been made, while another agreed the decision might take a few months. The cause behind the movement could be the fact that the Chinese government starts perceiving Bitcoin as a threat to local currency, especially as Chinese investors bought up Bitcoin and bet against the yuan in 2016.
Over the last 30 days, over 45% of the global cryptocurrency market was made up of three Chinese exchanges: Bitfinex, OkCoin, and BTCC. China is considered home to large cryptocurrency mining operations; not only for Bitcoin or Ethereum, but for other cryptocoins as well.
Furthermore, China banned initial coin offerings as an unapproved and illegal form of public financing and in 2013, it banned the cryptocurrency from all banks and financial institutions, but left exchanges alone. Still, the People’s Bank of China did not respond to comment in time for news publication, and neither did major Chinese Bitcoin exchanges Bitfinex, BTCC, and Huobi.
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