Bitcoin Price Extends Drop After China Intensifies Crypto Crackdown

Bitcoin Price Extends Drop After China Intensifies Crypto Crackdown

China's central bank ordered the country's largest banks and payment processors to take a more active role in curbing cryptocurrency trading and related activities, in the latest sign that Beijing is intensifying its crackdown on unregulated virtual currencies.

The People's Bank of China on Monday said it summoned representatives of multiple institutions—including state-owned commercial banks and Ant Group Co.'s Alipay—and told them to “strictly implement” recent notices and guidelines from authorities on curbing risks tied to bitcoin and cryptocurrency fundraising activities.

The financial firms were also instructed to go through their systems to investigate and identify customers with accounts at virtual-currency exchanges or that trade cryptocurrencies in the over-the-counter market. In such cases, the institutions have to cut off the accounts' ability to send or receive money for transactions, the central bank said.