BEIJING: Banking regulators in Beijing and Shanghai have ordered local cryptocurrency exchanges to shut down, state media reported on Tuesday, in the latest blow to the once flourishing Chinese market for virtual money.

A Beijing-based regulator required all exchanges in the city to submit a plan by 6pm on Sept 20 for winding down their operations, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Shanghai’s exchanges were also ordered closed last week, it said, without providing more information.

The international value of bitcoin has plunged in recent days amid speculation that the Chinese authorities would shut down the trading platforms following a ban on initial coin offerings earlier in the month. It was trading at $3,969 on Tuesday, down from highs around $4,359 a week ago.

Last week China’s two largest bitcoin platforms — BTCC and OKCoin — announced that they would stop all trading operations following new Chin­ese government regulations clamping down on crypto-currencies.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2017