The price of bitcoin dropped in trading today on news that the Communist Party of China has further cracked down on the trading of bitcoin and bitcoin mining.

The People’s Bank of China said today that the country’s major financial institutions must stop facilitating virtual-currency transactions. The PBOC is China’s central bank responsible for carrying out monetary policy and regulation of financial institutions in mainland China.

Under the order, banks must not provide products or services such as trading, clearing and settlement for crypto transitions, the PBOC said in a statement. Banks were further told to identify virtual-currency exchanges and over-the-counter dealer accounts and cut off their banking services.

As noted in May when bitcoin plunged on similar news out of China, none of this is completely new. As SiliconANGLE reported in September 2017, “the Central Bank of China ruled that all companies dealing in cryptocurrencies, not only bitcoin, will no longer be legal.” An official is on the record as saying that “the future in China can not have the so-called virtual currency and the currency between the trading platform.”

As in May, the only new thing here is that the CCP is becoming more aggressive in trying to enforce the nearly four-year-old ban.

It’s not just a financial crackdown that has spooked cryptocurrency markets, however. China has also further cracked down on bitcoin mining. According to Global Times, bitcoin mines in Sichuan Province, one of China’s largest cryptocurrency mining bases, were closed down on Sunday.

The shutdown in Sichuan came on top of the shutdown of bitcoin mines in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, resulting in more than 90% of China’s bitcoin mining capacity to now be closed down. In China’s far west, Xinjiang has been notably in the western news due to alleged forced labor and so-called “genocide.” China denies the allegations, saying that some Muslim locals are in education camps.

The Global Times notes that industry players had hoped that regulators in Sichuan might have taken a softer approach given that the province sources much of its power from hydroelectricity. The opposite was the case, as the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Sichuan Energy Bureau issued notice on Friday ordering local electricity companies to “screen, clean up and terminate” mining operations by Sunday.

Bitcoin, which as of June 14 was heading upward and had broken through $40,000, dropped on the China news. Bitcoin was trading at $32,728 as of 10:54 p.m. EDT, down almost 7% over the last 24 hours.

Image: 30478819@N08/Flickr