Mensholong LepchaShares in Huobi Technology tumbled on Monday in Hong Kong after its affiliate cryptocurrency trading platform said it will stop signing up new users in mainland China following Beijing’s latest crackdown on cryptocurrency.
Huobi Technology sank over 24% by lunch break on Monday after China's central bank, People's Bank of China (PBOC), on Friday deemed the use of cryptocurrencies illegal and said that overseas cryptocurrency exchanges providing services in the mainland are unlawful.
The firm's cryptocurrency exchange, Huobi Global, said over the weekend that it will “gradually retire” existing mainland users by the end of the year.
PBOC warnings
“We will inform users of the specific arrangements and details through official announcements, e-mails, text messages, etc,” Huobi Global said in a press release on Sunday.
Sentiment among cryptocurrency investors seemed resilient on Monday in the face of the latest development from China having already priced in a Chinese ban on cryptocurrencies earlier in the year with bellwether bitcoin crashing over 50% between mid-April to mid-June.
The PBOC has issued multiple warnings on the use of cryptocurrencies while ordering Chinese banks not to facilitate cryptocurrency-related transactions in May. The country has also clamped down cryptocurrency mining on concerns of the energy-intensive nature of such operations among others.
BTC down over 6% in last 7 days
On Monday, Bitcoin was trading 4.4% higher and Ether was up nearly 10% in the last 24-hours, as of early Asia trade.
Bitcoin prices have seen an over 6% drop over the last seven days, as of early Asia trade on Monday.
Bitcoin is up over 50% year-to-date, Ether is up over 300% in the same period and Dogecoin has risen over 4000% in 2021, as of Monday morning, according to data from MarketWatch.
