Yesterday's ominous closed-door meetings between the PBOC and bitcoin exchanges, appears to have had a dramatic effect, and as at least two Chinese bitcoin exchanges, Huobi and OKCoin, reported moments ago, all bitcoin withdrawals are now effectively suspended.

The result on bitcoin price was immediate and dramatic with bitcoin traded in China tumbling 7%.

This is the third major plunge driven by PBOC words (or deeds) pushing the dollar price of Bitcoin back below $1000.

Here is the statement issued by Huobi, which we assume will be cross-posted by all other Chinese bitcoin marketplaces, in what appears to be the final crackdown phase by the Chinese central bank on local bitcoin traders (google translated).:

respected user:

According to regulatory authorities, "Bitcoin trading platform shall not violate national anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management and payment and settlement and other financial laws and regulations" requirements, the network will be strictly in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, combined with industry experience, the industry counterparts bit Money laundering regulations, a comprehensive upgrade platform for anti-money laundering system to effectively prevent and combat the use of Bitcoin for money laundering, exchange, pyramid schemes and other illegal activities. In order to avoid possible illegal transactions that may continue before the system upgrade is complete, the Company decides:

1) immediately from the moment, the fire network to suspend a comprehensive bit of cash and cash Lait cash business;
2) RMB cash withdrawal and other operations are not affected;
3) The implementation of the system immediately after the completion of recovery Bitcoin, Laite coin currency services, industry-standard development and implementation time is expected to 1 month, may also be substantially ahead of the development process.

We apologize for the inconvenience, thank you for your understanding and support of the fire!