How china sinks bitcoin

Bitcoin falls further as China cracks down on crypto-currencies

The price of Bitcoin fell below $34,000 (ВЈ24,030) for the first time in three months on Wednesday, after China imposed fresh curbs on crypto-currencies.

Beijing banned banks and payment firms from providing services related to crypto-currency transactions.

It also warned investors against speculative crypto trading on Tuesday.

It follows falls in Bitcoin of more than 10% last week after Tesla said it would no longer accept the currency.

On Wednesday afternoon, Bitcoin recovered some ground, although it was still down -10.4% at $38,131.

Meanwhile, other digital currencies such as Ether, which acts as the fuel for the Ethereum blockchain network, and Dogecoin lost as much as 22% and 24% respectively.

At the same time, Tesla shares fell more than 3% on Wall Street, possibly because of the electric carmaker’s exposure to Bitcoin.

The firm, owned by Elon Musk, still holds around $1.5bn worth of the crypto-currency.

Beijing cracks down

Crypto-currency trading has been illegal in China since 2019 in order to curb money-laundering. But people are still able to trade in currencies such as Bitcoin online, which has concerned Beijing.

On Tuesday, three state-backed organisations, including the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Payment and Clearing Association of China issued a warning on social media.

They said consumers would have no protection if they were to incur any losses from crypto-currency investment transactions.

They added that recent wild swings in crypto-currency prices «seriously violate people’s asset safety» and are disrupting the «normal economic and financial order».

Neil Wilson of Markets.com said: «China has for some time been putting pressure on the crypto space, but this marks an intensification — other countries might follow now as central banks make strides towards their own digital currencies.

«Until now, Western regulators have been pretty relaxed about Bitcoin, but this might change soon.»

Tesla snub

In March, Tesla boss Elon Musk announced unexpectedly that the electric carmaker would allow customers to buy cars using Bitcoin.

But last week, he did a U-turn and suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin because of environmental concerns.

His fears centre on Bitcoin mining — the energy-intensive process through which the digital currency is generated, using high-powered computers. It often relies on electricity generated with fossil fuels, particularly coal.

«We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,» Mr Musk wrote.

«Cryptocurrency is a good idea. but this cannot come at great cost to the environment.»

He said the electric carmaker did not intend to sell any of its Bitcoin and intended to reinstate crypto-currency transactions once mining shifted to using more sustainable energy sources.

Although the digital currency cannot be traded in China, more than 75% of Bitcoin mining around the world is done in China.

For anyone who has followed the crypto-currency scene for a while, the events of recent weeks are a familiar story.

Some random event — say, a tweet from Elon Musk announcing Tesla will accept crypto-currency payments — sends Bitcoin to new highs, and people begin to say it’s winning mainstream acceptance.

Then another random event happens, perhaps a change of course from the Tesla tycoon. It comes tumbling down again, and talk of it going mainstream fades into the background.

Last month, in a chatroom on Clubhouse (another phenomenon that seems to be swinging from boom to bust) I expressed some scepticism about crypto-currencies.

Up popped a senior figure from London’s thriving fintech scene: «Rory, Rory,» he chided me, «crypto is becoming an accepted asset class.»

With big City institutions taking an interest, that had a ring of truth — back in April, at least.

But this week, the weather had changed, with the Financial Times reporting «new doubts among institutional fund managers over the future of crypto-currencies as an asset class».

My mind went back to 2013, when I had first taken an interest in Bitcoin. In a report for Radio 4’s PM programme, I had bought a pizza for 0.5 BTC, a tortuous process which had not seemed worth the ВЈ30 it cost back then — of course, at today’s exchange rate, that was a ВЈ14,000 pizza.

I had also written a blog post headlined «The Bitcoin Bubble», in which I tried to mine some lessons from a period when the price of the cryptocurrency shot up from $15 to $276 and then hurtled lower again.

I ended a piece in which I compared the cryptocurrency with 17th-Century Dutch tulips or London houses in the 1980s with this thought: «Unless and until Bitcoin can be used to buy a sandwich, or be accepted by your friends when you pay them back for a restaurant meal, then it is likely to remain just a playground for geeks and gamblers.»

Eight years on, it is still virtually impossible to buy a sandwich with Bitcoin.

And why would you want to, when there’s a good chance you’ll be mocked a few years later — as I’ve been for my transaction — for giving away an asset that goes on to soar in value?

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Китай изучает Bitcoin как альтернативную инвестицию

Китай заявил, что рассматривает Bitcoin как альтернативное вложение. Однако пока страна сохранит свои нынешние методы.

Китай — страна, известная своей поддержкой концепции «блокчейн, а не Bitcoin». Страна не раз пыталась ограничить криптовалюты, но, похоже, теперь она смягчает свою позицию, даже принимая несколько позитивный подход к ним.

Bitcoin как альтернативный инвестиционный инструмент

Выступая 18 апреля на Азиатском форуме Боао, бывший глава центрального банка Китая Чжоу Сяочуань и нынешний заместитель председателя центрального банка Ли Бо высказали свое мнение по поводу Bitcoin и криптовалют.

«Мы считаем, что криптоактивы должны сыграть важную роль в будущем либо как инвестиционный инструмент, либо как альтернативное вложение. Многие страны, в том числе Китай, также изучают его как инвестиционный инструмент».

В дополнение к этому Чжоу Сяочуань сказал, что людям необязательно знать, является ли технология, лежащая в основе цифровых валют, централизованной или децентрализованной, потому что «обычные люди необязательно понимают, на что похожа система, стоящая за ней». Он также добавил, что в любом случае цифровые валюты не должны использоваться для незаконной деятельности, такой как отмывание денег, уклонение от уплаты налогов, торговля наркотиками или оружием, или азартные игры.

Кроме того, Ли Бо отметил, что Bitcoin, как и стейблкоины, являются «зашифрованными активами» и являются вариантом инвестирования, а не валютой.

«Если он используется в качестве инвестиционного инструмента, многие страны, включая Китай, также изучают, какая нормативная среда должна быть для такого метода инвестирования».

Высокопоставленный чиновник подчеркнул важность законодательства, которое гарантирует, что «спекуляция такими активами не вызовет серьезных финансовых рисков». В конечном итоге, несмотря на намеки на более позитивный подход к Bitcoin и другим криптовалютам, Бо заявил, что они будут продолжать поддерживать текущие меры и методы.

Положительная реакция рынка

Вчера мы наблюдали серьезный обвал рынка по всем криптовалютам. Bitcoin упал ниже 52000 долларов, эфир упал ниже 2000 долларов и так далее, в результате чего было ликвидировано более 10 миллиардов долларов по всем направлениям.

Однако сегодня дела обстоят лучше. Большинство криптовалют находятся на пути восстановления, при этом тестирование BTC уже составляет 58 тысяч долларов.

ETH торгуется на уровне около 2250 долларов, BNB вернул 500 долларов, в то время как другие альткоины с большой и средней капитализацией также демонстрируют существенный рост.

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China Bans Bitcoin Again

May 18, 2021 4:37 pm 1

Ah sweat nice old FUD

Three associations under the central bank of China, the China Internet Finance Association, the China Banking Association, and the China Payment and Clearing Association, have all but admitted that their seven years of banning bitcoin requires yet another ban.

They have ordered financial institutions to not engage in crypto transactions and to take action if they suspect a transaction is crypto related, with a rough translation stating:

“Financial institutions, payment institutions and other member units must effectively strengthen their social responsibilities. They must not use virtual currency to price products and services, and must not underwrite insurance businesses related to virtual currencies or include virtual currencies in the scope of insurance liability. They must not directly or indirectly provide customers with other services related to virtual currency, including but not limited to: providing customers with virtual currency registration, trading, clearing, settlement and other services; accepting virtual currency or using virtual currency as a payment and settlement tool; developing virtual currency exchange services with RMB and foreign currencies; Develop virtual currency storage, custody, mortgage and other businesses; issue financial products related to virtual currency; use virtual currency as investment targets for trusts, funds, etc.

Financial institutions, payment institutions and other member units should effectively strengthen the monitoring of virtual currency transaction funds, rely on industry self-discipline mechanisms, strengthen risk information sharing, and improve the level of industry risk joint prevention and control. If clues of violations of laws and regulations are found, they must promptly adopt restrictions, suspensions or procedures in accordance with procedures. Terminate relevant transactions, services, and other measures, and report to relevant departments; at the same time, actively use multi-channel and diversified access methods to strengthen customer publicity and warning education, and take the initiative to make warnings about risks related to virtual currencies.

Internet platform corporate member units shall not provide services such as online business premises, commercial display, marketing and publicity, and paid diversion for virtual currency-related business activities. If clues of related problems are found, they shall promptly report to relevant departments and provide technical support for related investigations and investigations and assistance.”

You can basically picture Hitler Stalin stumping his fist in impotent rage at these young new kids that see the TV figurine not as an all powerful dictator, but an impotent naked empero.

Winnie the Pooh, President Xi Jinping got obsessed with banning bitcoin almost as soon as he came to power, starting in 2014 with prohibiting Alibaba from accepting it in payments.

Then in 2017 they closed some China based international exchanges, while all the time subsidizing bitcoin exporting miners in an overt example of unfair trade.

That in part ignited the trade war between the United States and China, which some hoped was due for a detente, starting with opening crypto exchanges.

Yet the nationalist authoritarian Xi for life regime clearly appears to have no interest in free and fair trade, and so continues its clown show of banning again what they ‘banned’ seven years ago.

And they have to keep banning it because they can’t ban it. So providing some nice comedy because with every ban they prove bitcoin can’t be banned.

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Bitcoin Sinks To 2-Month Low; China Moves Forward With State-Backed Cryptocurrency

Get Forbes’ top crypto and blockchain stories delivered to your inbox every Friday for the latest news on bitcoin, other major cryptocurrencies and enterprise blockchain adoption.

At the People’s Bank of China, research into the technology behind bitcoin is about to culminate in . [+] an entirely new kind of cryptocurrency.

Zhang Peng/Lightrocket Via Getty Images

CRYPTO MARKETS

The price of every major cryptocurrency took a sharp nosedive Wednesday afternoon, as bitcoin dropped well below the $10,000 threshold to its lowest level of the summer. Ethereum, litecoin and Ripple’s XRP also sank between 5% and 10% in a matter of minutes. Investors are left wondering whether the sudden fall represents a cheap buying opportunity or a critical blow to bitcoin.

SOURCE: MESSARI. PRICES AS OF 10:30 A.M. ON AUGUST 30, 2019.

ALL EYES ON CHINA

Forbes confirmed this week that China’s central bank will launch a state-backed cryptocurrency and issue it to seven institutions, including Alibaba and Tencent, in the coming months. It could be available as soon as November 11, China’s busiest shopping day, and may eventually be available to spenders internationally in the Western world.

“China’s strategic plan is to integrate more closely with the rest of the world. Cryptocurrency is just one of the means to have a more internationalized renminbi. It’s all strategic,” says Charles Liu, chairman of private equity firm HAO International.

$2,000 Back-To-Work Bonuses; How Biden’s Budget Hits Your Wallet

“ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL”

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are spending plenty of time in the spotlight to promote the book Bitcoin Billionaires, which recounts how they built their fortunes as early investors, and in an interview with CNN last week, the twins said Wall Street has been “asleep at the wheel” during bitcoin’s rise to prominence.

«Unlike the internet, which you couldn’t buy a piece of, you can actually buy a piece of this new internet of money,» Tyler Winklevoss said, promoting bitcoin to potential new investors.

ENTERPRISE

The Hyperledger consortium voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve an open-source codebase called Hyperledger Besu, its first code that links businesses directly to the public ethereum blockchain. It’s similar to Pantheon, another Ethereum enterprise solution launched by ConsenSys this spring, but Hyperledger’s version is expected to be easier to integrate with existing codebases.

Also, more and more companies interested in adopting blockchain are soliciting the services of VMware, a publicly traded company specializing in cloud computing and digital workspaces, to help them get started. Facebook plans to house a variant of a mechanism VMware developed with its libra cryptocurrency.

ELSEWHERE

He’s not Satoshi, he’s a very naughty boy. [Financial Times]

A Crypto Miner Cuts Costs and Rides Bitcoin’s Price Rise. [Wall Street Journal]

Coinbase Study Says 56% of Top 50 Universities Have Crypto Classes [CoinDesk]

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