Reports of a ‘closed-doors’ meeting surfaced yesterday, one wherein the PBOC was said to have met with representatives of Chinese bitcoin exchanges. While details were scarce at the time, the Beijing branch of China’s central bank has shed further light into the private meeting and its participants.

Having previously inspected and conducted on-site checks of Beijing-based exchanges Huobi and OkCoin, PBOC Beijing revealed that similar talks were held with the heads of 9 bitcoin exchanges.

Today  Huobi and OkCoin Exchanges suspended Bitcoin withdrawals for a month which caused a crash ending what had been a rising market. One of the problems with Bitcoin is that China also  is the home of the majority  of bitcoin miners and can wave a knock on effect on the market. Bitcoin has a major latency problem maybe this might help it catchup.

Yuan deposits and withdrawals are not affected, the exchanges said.

Markets had been hovering around $1,063 when the news broke, though this has now changed as the market seeks to price in the news.

According to the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), prices fell as much as $80, hitting a low of $958.56. BPI data shows that prices had previously hit a high of $1,077.76 earlier today.

At press time, bitcoin prices are at an average of $988.

CNY-denominated markets were down more than 13% from their peak on the news at one point, according to the BPI, falling from a high of ¥7,598.92 to an average of ¥6,755.52.

However, the price was up 5% on the day at press time, indicating traders were perhaps viewing the news as a buying opportunity.

Real-time response

So far, market observers appear to be reacting with a mixture of surprise and concern.

David Ogden
Entrepreneur

David Http://markethive.com/david-ogden