China's central bank on Friday vowed to crack down on illegal cryptocurrency trading activities, banning overseas exchanges from providing services to mainland investors online.
In the latest series of regulatory measures to crack down on cryptocurrency trading, China's central bank said it will ban financial institutions, payments companies and internet companies from facilitating cryptocurrency trading, and will strengthen monitoring of risks arising from such activities.
The bank indicated in a statement on its website that "commercial activities related to virtual currencies are illegal financial activities," adding that they "seriously threaten the security of people's assets."
After the Chinese central decision, most cryptocurrencies declined, and Bitcoin recorded about 42 thousand dollars, a decline of about 5.8 percent.
The impact of the Chinese decision was stronger on some other currencies, as Ethereum and Litecoin lost more than 7 percent of their value, according to Bloomberg.
In recent years, the bank said, "the trading of bitcoin and other virtual currencies has become widespread, leading to disruption of the economic and financial system and consequently to money laundering, illegal fundraising, fraud and other illegal and criminal activities."
In June, Chinese officials said more than 1,000 people were arrested for using profits by buying cryptocurrency.
Several Chinese provinces have banned cryptocurrency mining activities since the beginning of this year.
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