Cryptocurrency exchanges and providers of crypto services are scrambling to sever business ties with mainland Chinese clients, after Beijing last Friday (24 September) issued a blanket ban on all crypto trading and mining. In a culmination of years of efforts to rein in the sector, 10 powerful Chinese government bodies including the central bank, said overseas exchanges were barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet – a previously grey area – and vowed to jointly root out “illegal” cryptocurrency activities. Huobi Global and Binance, two of the world’s largest exchanges and popular with Chinese users, have stopped...