Bitcoin Price Drops Below $7,000 as China Blocks Access to Foreign Crypto Exchanges

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by Bhushan Akolkar · 3 min read
Bitcoin Price Drops Below $7,000 as China Blocks Access to Foreign Crypto Exchanges
Photo: Dan Nevill / Flickr

The overall markets under deep correction as China brings ban on local investors to trade even from foreign exchanges.

The cryptocurrency markets are currently in a deep downfall as the overall market valuation has slumped below $300 billion and Bitcoin too, has gone way past below $7000 mark. Currently, at the press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $6200 with a market cap of just $104 billion.

It is not just Bitcoin which has been the latest victim, but the correction has swept across the entire market with other altcoins plummeting like anything. According to the data by CoinMarketCapEthereum has now slipped below $600 and is currently trading at $589 while Ripple is trading at $0.60. In the past 24-hours, almost every of the top 10 cryptocurrencies has corrected by 20-25%.

After the South Korean government introducing several regulatory policies earlier this year, the crypto markets have been struck with panic and fear. In the way of a huge frenzy on crypto buying, the Korean government was looking for a way to control the crypto trading done by its investors.

Also, a major reason which has triggered this week’s correction is that global banks are now going hard on crypto investors. Recently, many of the prominent banking institutions from the Wall Street like JP Morgan, Citi Group and Bank of America have banned any sort of transactions made for cryptocurrency purchases through their credit cards.

Not only in the U.S but also in Europe the Lloyds Banking Group yesterday announced that it too has terminated and crypto transactions made through the credit cards. One of the major reasons which the banks have been giving is that they don’t want to take the credit risks associated with crypto purchases as investors are often found making purchases over their capacity to repay to the banks.

A Lloyds spokesperson while talking to Reuters said: “Across Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA, we do not accept credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies.”

Also, China is seen going all out in its war against cryptocurrencies. In a fresh set of rules, the Chinese authorities have put a ban on local investors to make crypto purchases from exchanges anywhere in the world. This means that local investors who are purchasing cryptos from other exchanges from Shanghai or Singapore will not be allowed to do so, anymore.

The South China Morning Post, the country’s local media publication, which is also affiliated with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) was quoted saying “To prevent financial risks, China will step up measures to remove any onshore or offshore platforms related to virtual currency trading or ICOs. ICOs and virtual currency trading did not completely withdraw from China following the official ban… Overseas transactions and regulatory evasion have resumed… [R]isks are still there, fuelled by illegal issuance, and even fraud and pyramid selling. Overseas transactions and regulatory evasion have resumed … risks are still there, fuelled by illegal issuance, and even fraud and pyramid selling.”

China has been taking some tough decisions in putting any sort of crypto activities to rest. It all started in September 2017 when the country first introduced an outright ban on its local exchanges from indulging in trading activities. China has not deterred from its earlier position till now and in fact has turned more stringent in pushing new regulatory norms.

Bitcoin News, Cryptocurrency News, Ethereum News, News
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