Chinese regulators shut down crypto trading software firm
Regulators in China have taken another move to restrict cryptocurrency trading services in the country after shutting down a major firm that provides crypto trading software.
The Business Administration Department of People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Beijing Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau announced yesterday that they have shut down the operations of a leading cryptocurrency trading software firm.
The regulators cracked down on the activities of Beijing Qudao Cultural Development Limited, which was alleged to be providing software services to crypto trading activities. The ban has led to the company’s deactivation and its website is now suspended, the regulators added.
Beijing Qudao has been around since 2016 and is known to be active in the marketing, public relations, modeling and entertainment businesses. The regulators warned companies in Beijing to desist from providing business premises, ad display, marketing or paid online traffic services to cryptocurrency entities.
Furthermore, financial and payment institutions in the jurisdiction are also banned from providing any service directly or indirectly to customers related to crypto transactions. In the joint statement, the regulators warned Chinese citizens of the risks surrounding crypto trading activities.
The move by the Beijing regulators doesn’t come as a surprise as China has taken drastic measures regarding cryptocurrencies recently. Over the past few years, several Chinese bodies have issued bans and restrictions on crypto activities.
The Sichuan government banned cryptocurrency mining activities in the region last month, causing 26 mining farms in the area to go out of business. This also caused Bitcoin’s total hashrate to decline by nearly 50%.
The PBoC followed this with an instruction to banks and payment institutions not to process cryptocurrency transactions. As such, cryptocurrency exchanges and companies don’t have banking partners to work with in China.
Despite China’s recent FUD, Bitcoin’s price has steadied above $30k. However, the leading cryptocurrency is still struggling to break past the $40k resistance point.
