This is not a matter of if anymore. Its when.
There's really no need for people to confirm or deny this, its clearly outlined in the People's bank of china press release of 4th of September:
http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/3374222/index.html
Just google translate point 3 and 4 if you can't understand Chinese .
In that release, the term "virtual currency" is used loosely to refer to ICOs, not the major cryptos.
I wish it was. While my chinese is not amazing, I did confirm with a native. There are 2 words referred to in the press release. One which effectively means "ICO coins" (代币) and the other that refers to the major cryptos like BTC and ETH "Virtual currency" (虚拟货币) and it mentions that both should seize being traded in exchanges for legal money.
Interesting. From all the interpretations I have read so far, it seems that the statement was very vague to begin with, and many people have come to the conclusion that the PboC was using the two terms interchangeably.
I think these interpretations come mostly from people who really want to believe otherwise...
There are examples there if you look for them. The best I can think of is Yunbi: https://yunbi.com/ . You will notice they are warning users about the regulations and have disabled RMB deposits. This is a pretty notable.
From Caixin that first reported the last BTC exchange regulation to the numerous extra sources, Charlee here and Wallstreet journal.... forbes, people are covering their eyes and ears and calling "fake news" a very legitimate concern. I've wanted to do a roundup of all the evidences but at this point, nothing will convince people until exchanges become restricted and ETH-BTC-LTC tanks.
I get what you're trying to say, but the issue with the WSJ article is that the author was using anonymous sources and very dubious statements like "people say," which reeks of bad journalism.
As for Yunbi, they prob got spooked by all the supposed "leaks" and decided to halt half deposits just in case.
All of the Chinese exchange has said that no official notices have been given, so at this point, there simply isn't any evidence, just rumors.
So here we are and its true. BTCC is shutting down. Journalism is not just taking an official source and re stating it. Journalism comes also in the form of anonymous tips, here-say etc. You could come up with all sorts of reasons why it might not be happening. But to deny that its a great possibility is what i'm seeing and that's utter nonsense.
I showed you an official source from People's bank of china saying exchanges need to stop and yunbi does just that and you say it's spooked?
All the major exchanges release the exact same statement preparing their users for the worst and that's still not enough?
You make a compelling argument, but if the PBoC really wanted all trading to cease, they would have issued official orders to every single exchange in mainland China. This would have been made very clear and there would have been no wiggle room.
I have a felling that the PBoC knows something fishy is going on at Chinese exchanges, and that earlier statement on ICOs was a warning shot to all exchanges to get them to fix their shit.
The fact that the big exchanges have not received official notices from the PboC is very telling!
Also, are you aware of this: