China's top regulators ban crypto trading and mining, sending bitcoin, rivals tumbling

China's most powerful regulators have intensified a crackdown on cryptocurrencies, with a blanket ban on all crypto transactions and mining, hitting bitcoin and other major rivals and pressuring crypto and blockchain-related stocks.

On Friday, in the first time the Beijing-based regulators have joined forces to explicitly ban all cryptocurrency-related activity, 10 agencies — including the central bank, financial, securities and foreign exchange regulators — vowed to work together to root out "illegal" cryptocurrency activity.

In May, China banned financial institutions and payment companies from providing services related to cryptocurrency transactions, after issuing similar bans in 2013 and 2017.

The repeated prohibitions highlight the challenge of closing loopholes and identifying bitcoin-related transactions, though banks and payment firms say they support the effort.

Friday's statement is the most detailed and expansive yet from the country's main regulators, underscoring Beijing's commitment to suffocating the Chinese crypto market, according to New York University's law school adjunct professor, Winston Ma.

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