Social media platform Weibo took a drastic step on Thursday to suspend the accounts of popular Bitcoin trading exchanges – Binance, OKEx, and Huobi. The decision of the platform has raised concerns over increased cryptocurrency regulation in China.
While the accounts of Binance and OKEX seem to have been deleted, Weibo stated that the Huobi account contains safety risks and had “abnormal practices.”
Huobi commented on the development, as one of its spokespersons stated that it has only learned about the issue recently and that the company is “actively communicating with Weibo” on the situation.
Shortly after the news about the trading platforms’ suspension on Weibo, Ethereum’s price fell by 4% while Bitcoin’s price dropped slightly by 0.2% the same day.
China Strict on crypto trading
In April 2019, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) listed the types of industries the countries intend to terminate, restrict, or support.
The list included crypto “mining” activities as one of the industries it wants to eliminate. However, a subsequent update on the list didn’t include the mining industry.
Earlier last year, the Chinese regulatory bodies banned crypto exchanges in the country. As a result, top trading exchanges in China such as OKCoin, Huobi, and Bitcoin China announced their plans to suspend registrations in the country.
In March, the authorities also proposed the planned ban on crypto mining will take effect from April.
But on Thursday morning, crypto Weibo users in China began noticing that the accounts of Binance, MXC, OKEx, and Huobi are no longer accessible.
The impact of the suspension already felt
It’s not clear what the main reason why Weibo decided
