. BITCOIN’S demise from its high of $19,118 on December 19, has run alongside the massive withdrawal of cryptocurrency trading in China’s renminbi (RMB) currency.China’s central bank has confirmed that the buying and selling of bitcoin in RMB has fallen from a peak of 90 percent of the world’s total to less than 1 percent since September 2017.
Experts in China fear losing control over the rapidly emerging cryptocurrency market that took on extra growth and volatility at the end of 2017.
The total ban in China came in at the start of February 2018 when the People's Bank of China (PBOC) - the central regulatory authority for financial institutions and monetary policy - issued a statement that it would “block access to all domestic and foreign cryptocurrency exchanges and ICO websites.”
However the scrutiny began before the outright ban and The People's Bank of China has now confirmed that it ensured a zero-risk exit for 88 virtual currency exchanges and 85 ICO trading platforms, since September 2017.
At the time the ban wiped six percent off bitcoin’s value and kicked-off a steady price decline from $9,052 at the start of the month to $6,914 on February 5th.
Zhang Yifeng, a blockchain analyst at Zhongchao Credit Card Industry Development Company told Xinhua: "The timely moves by regulators effectively fended off the impact of sharp ups and downs in virtual currency prices and led the global regulatory trend.”