Bitcoin, in sharp decline for several weeks, continued its downfall Monday, moving around 7,380 dollars around 16:30 GMT while he was close to 20,000 dollars in December, after a series of bad news for the virtual currency.
Last week was even the "worst week for bitcoin since January 2015," according to experts at Mirabaud Securities Geneva.
Virtual currency is particularly volatile - it can lose or earn hundreds of dollars in less than an hour - and escapes any regulation at this time. Beijing and the UK bank Lloyds Banking Group were Monday the latest to harden their tone against virtual currencies.
Beijing wants to stifle the ultimate trade in cryptocurrencies
Beijing wants to tackle the latest cryptocurrency deals still made from China, blocking access to foreign exchange platforms and removing their applications on local mobile platforms, an official media source said. The goal is, in the name of "financial stability", to extinguish "the ultimate fires" of virtual currencies in China and to stifle fundraising cryptocurrencies "which are experiencing a new upsurge," said Sunday the Jinrong Shibao, Financial Gazette under the auspices of the Central Bank (PBOC).
Certainly, the communist regime had already hardened the tone in the autumn against electronic currencies such as bitcoin or ether: trading platforms based in China had to stop their operations in September, and the authorities had strictly prohibited any Cryptocurrency (ICO) fundraising in the country.
But the enthusiasm of some Chinese investors pushed them to find alternatives: sites specialized in cryptocurrency trading; direct transactions from individual to individual; and access to overseas platforms, including Hong Kong and Japan, beyond the reach of Beijing regulators.
Very popular newsgroups were formed on the ubiquitous Chinese (WeChat, QQ) or Russian (Telegram) social networks for over-the-counter transactions, while the advertisements for virtual currencies and ICO were multiplying on the Chinese internet. ... It is to this constellation of channels of exchange still accessible from China that the authorities intend to attack by "reinforcing their supervision in a sustained way," says Jinrong Shibao.
According to the publication, the financial regulators will work with the telecom authorities to close the offending websites and block the downloading of mobile applications to participate in illegal fundraising in cryptocurrencies.
Unspecified measures will also be adopted against foreign platforms, and the PBOC has ordered Chinese payment system operators to initiate a "rectification" campaign to ensure that money passing through their systems did not come from exchanges of cryptocurrencies. This latest tightening of the Chinese vice intervenes while the bitcoin, star of cryptocurrency, has largely lost its luster in recent weeks.
An English bank prohibits the purchase of bitcoin by credit card
UK-based Lloyds Banking Group said on Monday it had banned credit card customers from buying bitcoin, following the example of several major US banks that are worried about debt problems.
"At Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA (its subsidiaries, Editor's note), we do not accept credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies," said a spokesman for the bank.
Lloyds' decision only targets credit cards, which make it possible to make purchases in indebtedness, which is likely to fuel speculation around cryptocurrencies by individuals who are not always solvent.
In the United Kingdom, the government called in late January Davos to regulate bitcoin quickly, before it can end up representing a real threat to the financial system. The British government called at the end of January to regulate bitcoin quickly, before the latter could end up representing a real threat to the financial system.
In the US, banks JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup each announced a similar move late last week, Bloomberg reported.
Read also: Bitcoin: US regulators crack down on scams
The use of bitcoin, which currently escapes regulation, has been the subject of multiple warnings from around the world by central bankers and authorities. The subject will be discussed at the next G20 Finance in March, where the French and German finance ministers will present common proposals on the regulation of cryptocurrencies.