The recent spike in the price of popular digital currency bitcoin has caught the ever-watchful eye of China’s central bank.
Officials from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued a fresh notice that warned users when engaging in bitcoin-related activities several days after the digital currency hit a new all-time high, which the central bank described as “abnormal price fluctuations,” CryptoCoinsNews reported.
According to the news outlet, which translated the Chinese-language PBoC notice, the Shanghai Financial Office and central bank officials met with the head of digital currency trading platform BTC China and “urged the platform to behave in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.”
The central bank also ordered BTC China to “perform self-examination and carry out some measures if necessary,” the report stated.
Aside from BTCC, representatives from OKCoin and Huobi were also present in the meeting, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin’s price reached $1,140.64 on Wednesday, breaking the $1,137 price it hit in November 2013. But the digital currency’s dramatic rally came to an abrupt end a day later, when it fell by as much as 23 percent—the steepest drop since 2014—as the Chinese yuan jumped by over 1 percent in trading, which analysts chalked up to efforts by the Beijing government to discourage short-selling investors from betting on the decline of their currency.
BTCC issued a statement on the PBoC’s notice, saying that they regularly meet with the central bank and work closely with Chinese authorities “to ensure that we are operating in accordance with the laws and regulations of China.”
“All of our users should be aware of the current policies on virtual goods as well as the risks involved in trading in volatile markets,” BTCC stated.
Current bitcoin price and trade volume
The digital currency’s price dropped to a low $898.69 early Monday, with a trade volume of $33.22 million.
