FILE: Shanghai, China - Date Unknown
1. High-rise buildings, traffic
2. People's Bank of China, traffic
3. Various of entrance to People's Bank of China
4. Various of hands typing on keyboard
5. Cables
6. Graphics
7. Various of trading graphs
8. Various of bitcoin models
9. Various of bitcoin trading websites
10. Various of prices on website
11. Man coming out of bitcoin trading company
12. Webpage declaring close of bitcoin trading
13. Trading graphs
14. Various of cityscape

China took a further step in cracking down on cryptocurrency transactions by ordering all banks and financial institutions to stop providing banking or funding to any cryptocurrency-related activities.

In a circular released on Wednesday, the central People's Bank of China banned all services for cryptocurrency transactions.

The document said that banks should enhance their daily transaction monitoring, and order the timely shut down of payment channels once any suspected trading of cryptocurrencies is discovered.

The government deems cyber money too risky to allow its continued trade. The circular follows China's crackdown on cryptocurrency trading last year, which saw Beijing shut down bitcoin exchanges and ban all initial coin offerings.

And China is not the only country that strives to control the risk. Many other countries and institutions are busy introducing new rules to rein in the market.

The European Central Bank has called for bitcoin to be regulated and taxed, labeling the cryptocurrency a tool for money laundering.

The South Korean government also said it will regulate speculation in cryptocurrency trading within the country.