Also wasnt there some defiant statements from Huobi about NOT complying with china regulations or that trades are going to take place underground if china keeps pushing for banning or too many restrictions on bitcoin, and that seems to just drag things out more than resolving matters.
As far as I can tell with Google Translate, the
note now on their site (dated 2014-04-11 16:45:16 local time) says that
(1) they believe that the aim of the December decree was to prevent abuses like money laundering, and they are totally willing to cooperate with the government on that, they are already doing a lot in that area with customer identification, reporting large movements etc; and that if they are forced to shut down, those abuses will move overseas where they will be harder to police;
(2) they have received closure notices from two banks (ICBC and Merchants Bank), they understand that each bank is interpreting the PBoC order differently, with different dates, so perhaps some of the banks may continue to work with them.
I think these views are consistent with the theory that the new "PBoC circular" did not originate with PBoC (which does not seem worried about those "virtual stamps" anymore). Bitcoin is no longer a threat to the monetary policy, which is the PBoC's main concern. But is still a potential tool for money laundering, bribing, subversion, etc..
IIRC, the December decree was said to be the joint decision of five ministeries/agencies, of which PBoC was just one. I think that the March decision, to tighten the December decree by closing the bank accounts, came from the law enforcement and national security agencies, and was issued through the PBoC only because the banks are subordinated to the PBoC.
Also, point (2) above may explain why the price bounced back to the level of Apr/09. The previous note of Apr/10, about the ICBC closure, implied that
all bank accounts would be closed, with no negotiation possible, thus confirming the Caixin article. This note restores the uncertainty of last Friday by suggesting that some bank accounts may remain open. The timing of the last drop (07:00 am local time) and the bounceback (11:00 am local time) seems consistent with the timing of the note plus insider trading.
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