China’s biggest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行), yesterday said it has banned activities related to trading in bitcoin, joining at least 10 other Chinese banks participating in a government crackdown on virtual currencies.
Bitcoin, invented in the wake of the global financial crisis by a computer guru, is a form of cryptography-based e-money that can be stored either virtually or on a user’s hard drive, and offers a largely anonymous payment system.
Speculators drove China’s bitcoin prices into the financial stratosphere last year, peaking at 7,588.88 yuan (US$1,224 at current exchange rates) in November, before they crashed following moves by exchanges, financial institutions and the government to rein in the virtual currency.
“From this date, any institution or individual must not use accounts set up with our bank for the deposit and withdrawal ... and transfer of funds for Bitcoin and Litecoin trading,” ICBC said in a statement on its Web site.
Litecoin is another virtual currency.
The move aimed to “protect the property rights and interests of the public, prevent money laundering risks as well as to safeguard the status of the renminbi as the legal currency,” ICBC said, referring to the yuan.
ICBC threatened to suspend and close bank accounts if clients failed to comply with the new rules.
Earlier this week, China’s main bitcoin exchanges pledged to practice “self discipline” including tracking suspicious trading and preventing money laundering.
Five markets, including China’s largest BTC China, said they would halt risky activities such as margin trading and short-selling, and make regular reports to the government, according to a joint statement posted on Tuesday.
In its annual financial stability report released late last month, China’s central bank labelled bitcoin “a tool for speculation” and warned against risks the e-money could pose to capital flows as well as its possible use in illegal activities including drug dealing and money laundering.
Last month, the central bank instructed banks and third-party payment providers to “completely cut off the capital chain” for bitcoin trading, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
The central bank has so far made no public statement to confirm the action, but at least 11 banks have ceased providing services related to bitcoin.
The moves have hurt the value of bitcoin in China. Yesterday afternoon, bitcoin was trading at 2,781.97 yuan each on BTC China, down 11 percent from April 25 when banks began announcing the bans.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained