Year-ender: Major financial events in 2021

China continues to crackdown on cryptocurrency speculation

The Chinese government has been maintaining its hard line on virtual currencies this year to crack down on cryptocurrency speculative investment.

The central bank urged financial institutions and payment companies to stop providing services for virtual-currency transactions, and warned investors against engaging in speculative crypto trading.

Virtual-currency speculation disrupts the normal economic and financial order, enhances the risks of illegal and criminal activities such as illegal cross-border asset transfer and money laundering, and seriously infringes on the safety of people's property, the PBOC said in a statement.

To meet the country's low carbon goals, cryptocurrency mining fields, which consumes vast amount of electricity, has been shut down across China, especially those in Sichuan province and Inner Mongolia autonomous region that provides a comparatively low-cost supply of electrical energy for cryptocurrency miners.