05 Dec 2013 / USA Today – Two major financial players, China’s central bank and the Bank of America, weighed in Thursday on opposite sides on the viability of the wildly popular virtual currency Bitcoin.
The price of a Bitcoin fell below $1,000 after China’s central bank banned financial institutions from trading the emerging currency, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch, in its first research report on Bitcoin, said the currency has potential to become a “major means” of payment.
The People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its website that Bitcoin isn’t a currency with “real meaning” and that its legal status was different from other currencies.
Bloomberg reported that Bitcoins traded at $980.00 early evening in Beijing on BitStamp, a currency exchange, after trading as high as $1,138.58 prior to the Chinese announcement.
The Chinese central bank said that while China’s financial system is not currently at risk from Bitcoin trading, the digital currency does carry unacceptable risks, including fostering a trading environment of excessive speculation and the threat of criminal exploitation….. Read more
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/05/bitcoin-china-pboc/3876727/
