After a top Chinese governmental body called for a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining, Bitcoin dropped an immediate 11% to $36,000 on Friday. Having just recovered from the week’s recent crash, China’s regulatory concerns took a sizable chunk of its corrective bounce.
According to a statement by the Chinese government, officials are calling for a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading activities. The statement came after Liu He, a Chinese vice premier, hosted a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council on Friday.
The statement posted on the website reads:
“We should be more alert and look for potential risks. We should crack down on bitcoin mining and trading activities and prevent individual risks from being passed to the whole society.”
The State Council’s meeting came after recent warnings against crypto trading by three Chinese financial industry associations and an ongoing crackdown on bitcoin mining operations in one of the North China mining hubs, Inner Mongolia.
The recent statement is a serious warning and undoubtedly one of the higher profile ones in recent years. China’s State Council is the chief administrative authority of China, with heads of cabinet-level executive department deciding on national policies.
Thomas Heller, co-founder, and CBO at Compass Mining said although this is not the first time potential impactful news is coming from China, current China developments are worth watching closely as its impact is unsure.
It is important to note though that Bitcoin mining and trading is NOT yet banned. Recent statement could still turn out to be ‘false alarm’.
In addition, Bitcoin community does not see the end of Bitcoin mining in China as a massive threat as it can lead to “greener” mining incentives elsewhere.