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When the Chinese government announced a ban on initial coin offerings last week, it looked like an attempt to rein in the speculative excesses of the cryptocurrency economy. But now it seems like it might have been the start of something more ambitious: a coordinated campaign to shut down use of cryptocurrency in the Middle Kingdom.
The full extent of the Chinese crackdown isn't clear yet, in part because key decisions have only been communicated privately to Chinese Bitcoin exchanges. But a couple of Bitcoin exchanges have now announced that they are shutting down. And leaked documents suggest that the rest will be required to do so before the end of the month. Chinese users will be given a chance to withdraw their funds before the exchanges shut down.
"BTCChina encourages customers to withdraw their funds as quickly as possible," one of the exchanges wrote in a Friday tweet. "Customers can withdraw their funds whenever they want."
Bitcoin has always been something of an awkward fit for China, which strictly regulates financial markets and limits the flow of funds overseas. Chinese officials have apparently concluded that Bitcoin has become too popular as a way to circumvent those regulations.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/china-may-be-getting-ready-to-ban-bitcoin/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Sunday September 17 2017, @06:17PM
I see more and more advertisements to buy bitcoin, like "this boy bought $15 worth of bitcoin and now he's a millionaire".
I think that means, that somebody is willing to spend good advertising money, in order to convince suckers to buy BTC, IOW that they want to get rid of them ASAP.
Maybe smart people calculated that the bubble's going to burst soon.