March 29, Beijing- The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) outlined an agenda for 2018 and identified cracking down on cryptocurrency as a top priority to protect the national currency. Bitcoin hit a one-month low today as its price dipped more than 9% to slip below $7,000 USD. Bitcoin has fallen by more than 48% this quarter and the major decline is the largest ever in the span of a three-month period science 2011. Other mainstream cryptocurrencies includes Ripple and Litecoin also tumbled recently.

Fan Yifei, the vice governor of PBoC, stated that the bank would “pursue the research and develop of China’s own digital currency but would also rectify the cryptocurrency market and crack down on all types of virtual currencies in the coming year.”

Fan further pointed out that, due to the development of digital economic, various payment methods may have a significant effect on the circulation and the issuance of RMB. The cryptocurrency market is still not mature enough, so the central bank is concern about the potential cryptocurrency threats which would harm the Chinese yuan. He emphasized that, protecting the national currency from digital currency threats would be one of PBoC’s top priorities in 2018.

Concerned analysts predict that the central bank would carry out a series of strict regulatory measures on virtual currencies pyramid selling and OTC trading activities in the near future.

Actually, although ICO and majority of the domestic token trading platforms were banned in September 2017, OCT exchange activities are still quite active in China. There are more than 2,000 kinds of altcoins in the market, most of them just use the concept of ‘blockchain’ without any intrinsic value. Investors also facing various risks involved in these kind of trading activities.

In order to prevent financial risks and safeguard financial stability, the substantial regulatory initiatives would be launched soon. In addition, China is not the only country plans to scrutiny on bitcoin and other digital assets. Lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. also have claimed they would tighten regulation.