China’s Crypto Crackdown Hits Five Exchanges

China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies has led at least five local exchanges to halt servicing of domestic users or their whole operations altogether.

Last week, Chinese exchange operators Bitsoda and Akdex announced that it would cease its operations. Btuex and Idax said they would close domestic operations and focus on overseas users. Biss said it had halted ops while it cooperates in investigations with local authorities.

The exchanges account for the five known exchanges that have suspended or shut down their operations. Other players that are believed to be affected include Binance and Tron whose Webio accounts have reportedly been suspended.

Weeks after Beijing declared support for blockchain technology, the market has been rushing to capitalize on perceived opportunities from digital currencies. This subsequently led regulators in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing to ramp up efforts to probe or shut down exchanges.

Concurrently, China is readying to realize part of its blockchain ambitions with the launch of its own central bank-backed digital currency. It is already making accelerated efforts to ready the regulatory grounds for the launch including the introduction of new standards in 17 areas of emerging technologies which include not only blockchain but also cloud services and artificial intelligence.