If you read between the lines, you'd have realized that the PBOC really does NOT like BTC at all. It has to do with the Central Communist Government's desire to centrally control their currency within their country. So, YES, the ban is REAL and will be coming down HARD.
I'm amazed at the denial. The PBOC has been issuing explicit anti-Bitcoin guidance for months now. They gradually restricted what Bitcoin exchanges could do, allowing an orderly shutdown. Bitcoin fanboys kept trying to interpret the orderly shutdown as "Bitcoin will not be stopped in China!". They were wrong. Now we're coming up on the shutdown deadline, and, unsurprisingly, people in China are selling Bitcoins.As for it not being "apparent overnight", Bitcoin just dropped from $450 to $390 overnight.
I have actually been surprised by this. I thought that they would be smart enough to realize that they should buy as many coins as the can while they still can, not sell at a loss because the government doesn't like it. It's not like that government can confiscate the coins or prevent people from cashing out outside the country.
Why surprised? If suddenly no stores/ banks/ govts accept USD are you going to stock up on USD or are you going to dump it?
The current Bitcoin situation is nothing like that. The purpose of Bitcoin was never to have banks and governments accept it, and more and more businesses are accepting it all the time (not in China, but in the rest of the world, which gives it ever increasing value). In China, it will be able to serve as a secure store of value and investment based on its use in the rest of the world. Anyone who thought Bitcoin was a good idea during the bubble and then changed his mind because the Chinese government came out against it, is an idiot.
