Bitcoin price declined over 10% in one day on news of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the crypto-currency The price of bitcoin fell 10% yesterday, and crashed below the $400 mark after Chinese financial regulators started a crackdown on the virtual currency. The price of bitcoin has now reached a five-month low to a level not seen since November 2013. According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which tracks the price movement of bitcoin on three exchanges, the virtual currency is currently trading at $389. China’s central bank had informed domestic banks last month to stop conducting business with all bitcoin exchanges in the country by April 15. Some prominent bitcoin exchanges in China like BTCTrade, BTC100, and Huobi received notices from their respective banks yesterday, calling on them to stop using their bank accounts to conduct bitcoin related activities by April 15. Huobi, the largest bitcoin exchange in terms of volume, traded 82,000 of the 150,000 Bitcoins traded on April 9. According to BTC China CEO Bobby Lee, trading volume at the BTC China exchange declined by 80% from its peak and customers are fleeing due to expectations of a crackdown on the virtual currency by authorities. Last December, Bitcoin suffered a serious setback after the People’s Bank of China barred financial institutions from handling transactions in the crypto-currency, on the premise that bitcoin was not a currency.
