Chinese regulators have taken steps to ensure bitcoin is not used to facilitate capital flight.
The apparent correlation between a depreciating renminbi and bitcoin’s price surge in recent months has prompted suspicion that the virtual asset is contributing to outflows, even as investors say they doubt the cryptocurrency is being used to transfer large amounts of cash out of China.
Bitcoin’s Chinese price rose 145 per cent in 2016, as the renminbi suffered its worst year on record, weakening 6.5 per cent. Renminbi transactions accounted for 98 per cent of global bitcoin trading volume over the past six months, according to data from bitcoinity.org.