China's central bank has announced that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal and must be banned, sending the strongest signal yet on its determination to crack down on the industry. China’s economic planning agency also said that it is an urgent task for China to root out crypto mining, and the crackdown is important to meet carbon goals. The move was an apparent bid to close a loophole that remained after the People’s Bank of China banned domestic financial institutions from providing cryptocurrency transaction services in May.

Two of the world’s largest bitcoin exchanges, Huobi and Binance have stopped letting traders use mainland China mobile numbers to register new accounts. New sign-ups are still available for Hong Kong users on both platforms, but mainland China is no longer an option for new-account creation. Huobi has also announced plans to close existing accounts by the end of the year.

Re-disseminated from the People’s Bank of China with additional reporting from The Straits Times