"When China sneezes, bitcoin catches a cold," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare. The latest drop was set off by news of spot checks from Chinese regulators on local bitcoin exchanges. Related: Bitcoin tops $1,000 at start of 2017"The fear is that the [central bank] will impose strict or unreasonable regulatory demands on Chinese bitcoin exchanges," said Petar Zivkovski, COO of bitcoin trading platform Whaleclub. China appears to be putting the bitcoin exchanges on notice, analysts say. Chinese regulators could clamp down on bitcoin by classifying it as a foreign currency, which would effectively limit individual bitcoin transactions to $50,000 per year, said Kapron, author of the book "Chomping at the Bitcoin".

Source: CNN January 12, 2017 09:33 UTC