Agricultural Bank of China Affirms Ban on Crypto Transactions

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) in a statement published on its website restated its ban on all crypto transactions as well as any crypto-related activity. The now-deleted post also stated that the Agricultural Bank of China will seek to find and block any account associated with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

ABC, in the now-deleted post, cited recent guidance from the People’s Bank of China for its decision to continue its crackdown on cryptocurrency transactions and originally wrote that it was banning the use of its services for any crypto-related transactions such as Bitcoin. The Agricultural Bank of China added that it was intensifying its investigation and monitoring of customer transactions and would mete out punishments such as suspension of account transactions and termination of customer services with immediate effect alongside possibly reporting crypto offenders to relevant government departments as “promptly” as possible.

“Any such behaviors detected would result in the termination of customer relationships and be reported to the relevant authorities”, the now-deleted statement said. The bank however deleted the post from its website minutes after it was reported by the media. Screenshots and screencaps of the original Chinese announcement which contained details of what it called a “ban” on clients “involved in crypto activities” were later posted on multiple accounts on the social media app, Twitter. ABC in the statement also revealed that its decision was based on recent announcements from crypto market regulators, and sent out a warning to its clients about the risks of crypto market investments.

The Agricultural Bank of China is amongst the ‘big four’ banks in the People’s Republic and was the world’s biggest-ever Initial Public Offering when it went public in 2010. The bank however is still strongly tied to Beijing and Chinese monetary policy despite it being publically traded. State-owned investment vehicle Huijin Investment is its biggest shareholder and owns over 40% of the company. ABC is also one of the five traditional financial institutions cooperating directly with the central People’s Bank of China on its digital Yuan pilot.

ABC is the world’s third-largest bank and has its headquarters in Dongcheng district, Beijing. ABC is the first major state bank to make a public statement against cryptocurrency trading and investment after China’s State Council, announced plans to crackdown Bitcoin trading and mining activities last month.

Bitcoin is fell 7% after the announcement and touched lows close to $32,322. The biggest cryptocurrency at press time was trading at $32,763, still down 4.18% in the last 24 hours. Ether also fell to $1,977 during Monday’s early European hours, dropping to its lowest level since May 23. XRP saw a loss of 7.21% whiles Cardano (ADA) and Polkadot (DOT) recorded losses of 4.85% and 11.62% respectively.