Bitcoin drops by $100 as China’s central bank corrals the market – WBNews

Chinese bitcoin exchanges have disabled withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after meeting with the People’s Bank of China, indicating the central bank has stepped up its efforts to regulate the market. Throughout January, the PBoC made announcements that it was looking into bitcoin, including setting up a task force to carry out inspections and ensure bitcoin exchanges had implemented anti-money laundering systems. Then on Thursday, the central bank announced it had met with nine exchanges to warn them they would be closed if they violated regulations. This prompted the three main Chinese bitcoin exchanges, BTCC, Houbi and OKCoin to temporarily disable bitcoin withdrawal (users can deposit and withdraw yuan but not bitcoins) for the next 30 days, while they improve their anti-money laundering systems and customer identification measures. The news caused the price for bitcoin to drop sharply on Thursday, from near a one-month high of around $1063 to as low as $954. Bitcoin prices recovered marginally, and are currently trading around $964. Despite the hit to prices, bitcoin analysts believe the move by the PBoC will be healthy for the market. “The PBoC moves to regulate Bitcoin more stringently will bring short term woes but will ultimately strengthen the ecosystem,” Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, told CNBC via email. The moves by the PBoC and the improved systems will add respectability and rigor to the bitcoin market, according to Hayter. These measures, along with the introduction of standard trading fees by Chinese exchanges,…more detail