China’s oldest bitcoin exchange BTCC to shut operations, cryptocurrencies shed $17 bn in mcap

A Bitcoin (virtual currency) coin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration - RTS18BQW

Shanghai-based bitcoin exchange BTCC today announced that it stop all trading effective from September 30. This move comes after news organisations suggested that China will crackdown on all cryptocurrency exchange in the country.

1/ After carefully considering the announcement published by Chinese regulators on 09/04, BTCChina Exchange will stop all trading on 09/30.

— BTCC (@YourBTCC) September 14, 2017

Sources privy to the development told Chinese news outlet Yican Global that government authorities have decided to suspend and subsequently close the trading activity of all cryptocurrencies on all the exchanges.

Another Chinese exchange Huobi told Coindesk that they have not received a clear document or notice from the government to shut operations, but it will follow any formal guidance it gets.

Post BTCC’s tweet, the crypto market saw a sharp dip and lost around USD 17 billion in a span of few hours.

Market leader bitcoin was down around 9 percent and was trading at levels of USD 3,496 at time of reporting, as per Coindesk. This is a correction of around 30 percent from its all-time high of USD 5,000.

Other major altcoins like ether, litecoin, bitcoin cash and ripple were down 11 percent, 20 percent, 14 percent and 10 percent respectively, according to coinmarketcap.

The total market cap of cryptocurrencies stood at USD 119 billion, a fall of 33 percent from its peak value, at time of reporting.

September has been a rough month for the crypto market.

Earlier this month China declared a ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) post which there was a massive sell-off in altcoins which is now followed by the ban on Chinese exchanges.

But there was some good news as well. Recently, the municipality of Chiasso in Switzerland said that it will accept tax payments in bitcoin.

Also, legendary fund manager Howard Marks, who had earlier criticized bitcoin, said in his latest memo that he was wrong about the cryptocurrency and now understands it better.

It may take a while to see the cryptocurrency market back in green but crypto experts and enthusiasts continue to believe that prices will recover as there is a growing acceptance towards cryptocurrencies in general.

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