Google Play The State Council, China’s cabinet, last month vowed to clamp down on mining and trading as part of a series of measures to control financial risks.
Data on mining is scarce. Yet production of bitcoin in China accounted last year for about 65% of global production, according to data from the University of Cambridge, with Sichuan its second-biggest producer.
Companies that mine bitcoin – an energy-intensive process – typically hold large inventories of the cryptocurrency, with any moves to sell large amounts depressing prices.
“(The) crackdown on Chinese miners might mean that they are offloading coin into a thin market and taking us lower,” said Ben Sebley of London-based crypto firm BCB Group.
China’s central bank said on Monday it had summoned some banks and payment institutions recently, urging them to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading.
Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), China’s third-largest lender by assets, said separately it was following the People’s Bank of China’s guidance and would conduct due diligence on clients to root out illegal activities involving crypto mining and transactions.
Smaller rival ether, which tends to move in tandem with bitcoin, dropped as much as 12%, falling below $2,000 for the first time in almost a month.
(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by Toby Chopra, Giles Elgood and Alison Williams)
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This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.