In a public announcement today, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed its warning toward 9 local bitcoin exchanges operating in the country.
Reports of a ‘closed-doors’ meeting surfaced yesterday, one wherein the PBOC was said to have met with representatives of Chinese bitcoin exchanges. While details were scarce at the time, the Beijing branch of China’s central bank has shed further light into the private meeting and its participants.
Having previously inspected and conducted on-site checks of Beijing-based exchanges Huobi and OkCoin, PBOC Beijing revealed that similar talks were held with the heads of 9 bitcoin exchanges.
The lesser-known trading platforms include CHBTC, BTCTrade, HaoBTC, Yunbi, Yuanbao, BTC100, Jubi, Bitbays and Dahonghou.
A translated excerpt from the announcement reads:
PBOC officers notified the exchange platforms of existing problems and possible related legal, regulative and technical risks, and gained understanding of the operations of the exchanges.
The PBOC’s latest statement reveals a meeting with more companies in the Chinese bitcoin industry.
Further, a list of demands by the central authority sees no provision for margin trading on offer by exchanges, adhering to anti-money laundering laws and foreign exchange regulations. Further, the exchanges are required to operate in compliance with tax regulations.
In the event of flouting or operating beyond the scope of the above requirements, the PBOC adds:
If an exchange violates the above requirements and the circumstances are serious, the (PBOC) inspection team may ask the relevant (law enforcement) departments to close down the exchange, according to law.
The announcement comes just over a month after the PBOC revealed similar warnings to three of China’s biggest bitcoin exchanges in BTCC, Huobi and OkCoin.
Within days, all three exchanges had stopped margin trading for Chinese citizens, before a formal announcement followed soon after. The other significant change following the PBOC’s involvement is the introduction of trading fees by the three exchanges on January 24.
Others are following suit.
So far, CHBTC and BtcTrade, two of the nine bitcoin exchanges that were held to the PBOC meeting have announced trading fees on their respective websites, starting midday February 13.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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