Bitcoin Tumbles Below $39,000 After China Issues Warning

Bitcoin plunged below $39,000 for the first time in more than three months Wednesday after China said cryptocurrencies would not be allowed in transactions and warned investors against speculative trading in them.

The comments sent the unit diving more than 10 percent and dealt it another blow soon after being battered by comments from tycoon Elon Musk and his Tesla car company.

Trading in cryptocurrencies has been banned in China since 2019 to prevent money laundering as leaders try to stop people from shifting cash overseas. The country had been home to around 90 percent of the global trade in the sector.

And in a statement, three state-backed industry associations -- the National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association and the Payment and Clearing Association of China -- said "cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed and plummeted, and cryptocurrency trading speculation activities have rebounded".

The price fluctuations "seriously violate people's asset safety and disrupt normal economic and financial order", said the statement, which was posted to social media by the People's Bank of China.

The notice warned consumers against wild speculation, adding that the "losses caused by investment transactions are borne by the consumers themselves", since Chinese law offers no protection to them.

It reiterated that providing cryptocurrency services to customers and crypto-based financial products was illegal for Chinese financial institutions and payment providers.

Bitcoin tumbled Wednesday from $45,600 to $38,570, its lowest since early February, and well off the record high of $64,870 seen as recently as last month. Analysts have warned it could go down as far as $30,000.

"This is the latest chapter of China tightening the noose around crypto," Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of London-based crypto lender Nexo, said.

Concerns over the environmental impact of bitcoin mining prompted carmaker Telsa to stop using it in transactions AFP / Lars Hagberg

Adam Reynolds, of Saxo Markets, added that avoiding use of cryptocurrency, which can be transferred out of the country, is "essential to maintaining capital controls" in China.

Bitcoin has had a torrid few days. It took a heavy hit at the start of the week after Musk appeared to suggest Tesla was planning to sell its huge holdings of the unit. And that came days after the electric car giant said it would halt using it in transactions because of environmental concerns.

"Elon Musk started the ball rolling," Germany-based crypto analyst Timo Emden told AFP. "It will take some time for them to recover from this shock."

However, some Chinese enthusiasts remained unfazed.

"This has happened before and it happens every year... Crypto is here to stay," said trader and ex-tech industry worker Zeng Jiajun. "I think nothing will change until big exchanges like Binance close their businesses for Chinese users, which is unlikely to happen since those exchanges all operate abroad."

China is in the midst of a wide-ranging regulatory crackdown on its fintech sector, whose biggest players -- including Alibaba and Tencent -- have been hit with big fines after being found guilty of monopolistic practices.

The central bank has also sought to promote its own heavily regulated digital yuan, which it is testing across the country in pilot schemes.

Consumers already widely use mobile and online payments, but the digital yuan could allow the central bank -- rather than the big tech giants -- greater data and control over payments.