Cryptos Slump as UK Watchdog Looks to Outline Regulatory Views

Investing.com – and other virtual coins inched down on Monday, as regulators in the UK and China looked to crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin was trading at $6,735.8 decreasing 5.44% as of 8:47 AM ET (12:47GMT) the Bitfinex exchange. The virtual currency is far from its peak of $20,000 in December 2017 and has struggled to recover since falling below $6,000 in February.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that while digital currencies don’t come under the regulatory scheme of the agency, the use of cryptocurrencies does. The FCA is working with the Bank of England and Treasury to develop a paper outlining virtual currency policy.

The research could be delayed however, as the regulator focuses its energy on researching the impact of Britain’s withdrawal of the European Union.

In other news, China is planning to take further action against cryptocurrencies. The country has already banned trading on exchange platforms.

“First, we will intensify reforms and innovations to promote the central bank’s digital currency research and development; Second, the bank must strengthen supervision and rectify all types of virtual currencies,” said vice governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Fan Yifei.

China is also looking to develop its own cryptocurrency, which would strengthen interest rate measures, Sun Guofeng, PBOC’s director general of financial research, said.

“While the central bank’s digital currency is conducive to the implementation of negative interest rate policies, the central bank should speed up the development of a central bank issued digital currency,” Guofeng said.

Other virtual currencies were down, with rival , the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, falling 1.74% to $393.63 on the Bitfinex exchange. , the third largest virtual currency, decreased 4.78% to $0.47794 while LiteCoin was at $114.65, a decline of 3.22%.

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