According to a local report, Beijing is planning on shutting key bitcoin exchanges in China. Reuters has been unable to confirm the story, and two of its sources say they haven't heard anything from the government.
Nevertheless, Bitcoin is down nearly 7% today, and off more than 10% since hitting a record-high just shy of $5K on Sept. 2.
"If this turns out to be true, then this sell-off is substantiated, and we could see further downside over the weekend, as it could mean the large bitcoin/Chinese yuan exchanges will need to halt trading," says Greg Dwyer from BitMEX.
As I understood it, the rumor is that China wants to shut down local bitcoin exchanges - not the big ones. Per a friend in China, this would be because the local exchanges are used to trade cryptos for ICOs - so this is part of controlling ICOs.
There's rampant speculation in ICOs now and many fake companies sort of like the late 90's internet IPO boom here. So regulating ICOs would be a very good thing; it would make them much safer and more investible.
I think when this gets clarified, people will realize there's no impact on bitcoin except a better-regulated ICO marketplace, which could be the source for massive amounts of equity creation in real companies down the road. In other words, China halting ICOs and local exchanges to protect investors should be a net positive for cryptos.
i think
china is kidding
Buy on the dip. A similar fall also happened in the past for bitcoin due to China. But the price hit floor and surged about 1/2 year later. Looks like bitcoin bounced of $4100. $4000 seems to be support, which also is the cost of electricity at 12/31/2017. Cost of electricity is $2500 now. Add $1000 average cost of a mining machine, and floor is $3500.