It appears that even Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not immune to government policies or interventions as the price for Bitcoin plunged over 8% in a minute's time following the announcement by the Chinese government that they were planning on shuttering local Bitcoin Exchanges.
This new move on Sept. 8 follows an earlier move this week from China in making it illegal to engage in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) which led Bitcoin to fall 20% from its high of just under $5000 per coin.
The supervisory authority has decided to close the exchange of virtual currency in China , which involves all the currencies and currencies of the currency , such as "currency line", "coins" and "Bitcoin China."
Journalists confirmed the news from the person who came close to the Internet Financial Risk Special Rectification Working Group (hereinafter referred to as the Leading Group) and learned that the resolution had been deployed to the local level.
This is following the September 4 People's Bank of seven ministries and commissions joint announcement (hereinafter referred to as the announcement) after further supervision action. The announcement will mark ICO (Initial Coin Offering) as "illegal financial activities" and order the ICO to be banned on the date of publication of the announcement. All ICO tokens trading platforms need to be cleared to close the transaction.
"In other words, the future in China can not have the so-called virtual currency and the currency between the trading platform."
The close to the leading group, said: "In this way, there is no so-called tokens, virtual currency and RMB between the two Can not trade the problem." – Caixin via Zerohedge
With between 58-70% of all Bitcoin transactions taking place in the countries of Japan, South Korea, and China, any policies implemented by these governments will have a profound impact on the trading of cryptocurrencies, and on the price. And Bitcoin owners can expect continued volatility in this market as more and more governments around the world decide whether to allow cryptocurrencies to function within their economies, or if they are seen as a threat... especially to those nations looking to create their own future sovereign ones.