On Wednesday, two Chinese banks announced a ban on the trading of bitcoins through their bank accounts, once again shrinking the number of Chinese banks that support Bitcoin, and reducing its strength internationally.
The two banks are China Guangfa Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co Ltd, according to Reuters.
They have banned personal customers as well as businesses from both buying and selling bitcoins through their banks. This ban extends to all derivatives of the virtual currency. This poses a problem to Bitcoin exchanges based in China, such as BTC China, China’s oldest Bitcoin exchange.
BTC China, OKCoin and Huobi.com, three Bitcoin exchanges scheduled to appear at Beijing’s Global Bitcoin Summit, are no longer attending, according to Bloomberg.
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has issued warnings to banks and other institutions that support the trading of bitcoins. The PBOC regulates financial policy in China, and has used Bitcoin’s risk as a money laundering tool as a reason to ban the currency from Chinese banks.