Reports: China orders bitcoin exchanges to shut down

Beijing: Two Chinese business newspapers say regulators in Shanghai, the country's financial center, have ordered exchanges that trade the cyber currency bitcoin to shut down.

China Business News and 21st Century Economic Report said Thursday regulators gave verbal instructions to operators of platforms to close but gave no other details. That followed a report last week by a business news magazine, Caixin, that regulators had ordered a halt to trading.

The Chinese central bank has not responded to questions about the future of bitcoin in China but last week banned initial offerings of new cyber currencies. Central bank officials have warned that bitcoin trading could be associated with fraud.

China was one of the world's biggest markets for bitcoin but trading volume has declined as regulators tightened controls.