Bitcoin, Ethereum and Co: China is striking a new blow against cryptocurrencies

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Crypto trading in China:

The People's Republic has declared war on Bitcoin and Co

Photo: HOFFORD / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

China is increasing the pressure on the cryptocurrency industry. On Friday, the country declared all cyber foreign exchange activities illegal and prohibited foreign crypto exchanges from providing any services to customers in China. Offenses would be punished severely. The government will resolutely take action against speculation with cryptocurrencies in order to protect citizens' assets and the economic, financial and social order, the central bank announced on its website. China is working on a digital version of its currency, the yuan.

At the same time, the government issued a nationwide ban on so-called crypto mining. Users provide computer capacities for checking and encrypting transactions. You will be rewarded for this in the respective crypto currency. China has so far been the main location of these "miners". In the past few months, however, some provinces had banned this business, among other things with the extremely high energy consumption for the operation of the computer farms required for mining.

The increased regulatory pressure in China sent the prices of the crypto currencies downhill.

The two most important, Bitcoin and Ethereum, fell 5.5 percent to $ 42,239 and 10 percent to $ 2,840, respectively.

Values ​​from the cryptocurrency sector and companies that deal with the blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin & Co also flew out of the depots.

The shares of Coinbase, Riot, Marathon, Overstock and Silvergate fell by up to 6.4 percent in the pre-market US business.

The titles of the software company MicroStrategy, which has invested billions in Bitcoin, lost almost six percent.

cr / Reuters