China Bans Payment Companies from Working With Bitcoin Exchanges, Sources Claim

Earlier this morning, we posted some rumors that suggested a major shift in China regarding bitcoin adoption. As it were, it looks like they may be coming to fruition. On Monday, some of the top third-party payment companies in the country met with officials from the People's Bank of China - and while the meeting wasn't explicitly about bitcoin, it reportedly became a talking point in the conversation. "PBOC, in no uncertain terms, directed third-party payment companies not to do business with bitcoin exchanges in China," said what has been called a reputable source to CoinDesk. So, we are....

Rumors are circulating on the web that the People's Bank of China website was attacked on Thursday morning via a distributed denial of service attack by those angry at recent orders for payment processing companies to stop working with bitcoin exchanges. "Mr. Shangkong" at the South China Morning Post makes the claim, and apparently, Chinese media outlets are blaming this attack on "foreign bitcoin investors". As for the People's Bank of China - they say the downtime was attributed to "fixing web", which we have no idea what that means exactly, but can only assume fixing a technical issue....

Cryptocurrencies may see a boost between China and the U.S., as the American president Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning financial transactions with eight China-based payment applications. Following the signing of Trump’s new executive order, popular payment apps including Alipay, Wechat Pay, and Tencent’s QQ will be banned in America in 45 days. According to the latest executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, Americans will be prohibited from transacting with eight different Chinese payment applications. Transactions processed with these apps....

China has reportedly banned financial institutions and payment companies from offering Bitcoin service to clients.

CoinDesk can confirm that the source for our original piece on the PBOC ban was Bobby Lee, CEO of bitcoin exchange BTC China. Lee said he is now happy to go on the record. Bitcoin dipped to its lowest price in a week, following yesterday's reports that the People's Bank of China had banned third-party payment firms from dealing with bitcoin exchanges. Prices took a dive throughout the day, starting at around $876 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index in the early hours (GMT), and falling to as low as $645 later in the day. Prices briefly rallied up to $771 on the BPI, only to dip once again.....