BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Bitcoin exchanges said on Saturday they are still awaiting clarification from the authorities on a media report that they will be shut down.
Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday after Chinese financial publication Caixin reported that China was planning to shut down local crypto-currency exchanges, although analysts said this was just a temporary setback.
The news follows China's move earlier this week to ban so-called "initial coin offerings," or the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors in order to finance start-up projects.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report.
A spokeswoman for Beijing-based OK Coin said the platform has not received any notification from regulators.
Spokespersons at Beijing-based Huobi and Shanghai-based BTCC said they were still waiting for further official clarification.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh, Writing by Kevin Yao; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
