Bitcoin falls as report claims China orders exchanges to shut

Bitcoin fell as much as 7.3 per cent in the US after a report claimed Chinese regulators ordered the nation’s digital exchanges to close, the second blow to the $150 billion cryptocurrency market after the country earlier this week outlawed initial coin offerings.

A document has been issued for local Chinese regulators to implement the shutdown, Caixin reported today, citing unidentified people close to the nation’s internet financial risk prevention team. Earlier, bitcoin prices dropped 18 per cent on the Chinese trading platform Huobi.com.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the order is being conveyed to bitcoin exchanges in China. Wu Xing, a