China’s Central Bank Meets With More Bitcoin Exchanges

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8 February 2017

A number of smaller China-based bitcoin exchanges met with the People’s Bank of China in a closed-door setting today.

According to sources familiar with the matter, in attendance were exchanges that were previously absent from talks held earlier in the month, including Beijing-based Yunbi and BTC Trade.

Speaking with CoinDesk, BTC Trade confirmed its participation, while Yunbi would neither confirm or deny the report. Both declined to provide additional details about the discussion.

According to Bloomberg, a source said that money laundering was on the agenda, as it was in prior talks.

Reportedly not in attendance were representatives from China’s three largest exchanges BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin, all of which met with the central bank earlier in the month to discuss practices and policies. BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin all confirmed they were not in attendance at the meeting.

At press time, the price appeared to dip slightly on the news, possibly on fears China may take further action to rein in its local bitcoin market.

The move follows a migration of China’s bitcoin trading volumes to exchanges that largely still offer no-fee bitcoin trading, a policy dropped by major exchanges at the request of the central bank earlier this year.

PBOC image via Shutterstock