Bitcoin price crisis: Cryptocurrency prices plummet as China triggers 'judgement day' move

The price of the world's most popular cryptocurrency has fallen by by more than eight percent since the start of Friday from £27,816 to just £25,562 at 7.30am on Monday. 

Ethereum's price had dropped by 3.65 percent from £2.025 to £1,951 in a matter of days. 

Until just under two months ago, the price of Bitcoin had been dramatically surging, raising renewed hopes of a major fightback from the normally turbulent cryptoccurency markets, 

The value skyrocketed to a record high of £45,882 on April 15 but has plummeted sharply ever since. 

The latest crisis comes as a host of crypto-related accounts in China's Twitter-like Weibo platform were blocked over the weekend as Beijing continues to come down hard on Bitcoin trading and mining.

Cryptocurrency experts have warned further actions are expected, such as linking illegal crypto activities in China more directly with the country's criminal law

Just a couple of weeks ago, China's State Council said it would be cracking down on Bitcoin mining and trading, which came days after three industry bodies banned crypto-related financial and payment services.

Throughout the weekend, access to a number of widely followed crypto-related Weibo accounts was denied, with a message saying each account "violates laws and rules."

A Weibo bitcoin commentator, or key opinion leader (KOL), who calls herself 'Woman Dr. bitcoin mini', wrote: "It's a Judgment Day for crypto KOL."

NYU Law School adjunct professor Winston Ma, referring to the Tesla founder and cryptocurrency fan, said: "The government makes it clear that no Chinese version of Elon Musk can exist in the Chinese crypto market."

Mr Ma, who has also written the book 'The Digital War', believes China's supreme court will publish a judicial interpretation at some point that may connect crypto mining and trading businesses with China's body of criminal law.

The financial regulator said such an interpretation would address the legal ambiguity that has failed to clearly identify bitcoin trading businesses as "illegal operations".

So far, all rules against cryptocurrencies in the country have been published by administrative bodies.

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