'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Bitcoin tanked again on Tuesday and briefly fell below US$30,000 for the first time since late January as China escalated its crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
China further curbed mining activity and told major payments platforms and lenders that crypto trading won't be tolerated.
Bitcoin plunged more than 9 per cent over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has lost roughly half its value since it hit an all-time high in April. Other cryptos were also caught up the big sell-off: Ethereum fell about 10% while Dogecoin dove 25 per cent, erasing all of its gains since April.
Cryptocurrencies have had a rough couple of months for a few reasons, including concerns about the environmental impact of mining coins and increasing government scrutiny.
Crypto continues to catch a lot of heat from China, which has for months been signaling a more aggressive push to curtail use of such currencies.
The People's Bank of China on Monday said it summoned Alipay, the widely popular online payments platform run by Jack Ma's Ant Group, along with five big lenders and told them to "comprehensively investigate and identify" cryptocurrency exchanges and dealers so they could cut off any crypto trading.
"Cryptocurrency trading and speculative activities ... breed the risks of illegal cross-border transfers of assets and money laundering," the central bank said.
The lenders included the Industrial and Commercial Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Postal Savings Bank of China and the Industrial Bank.
All six companies said in statements issued after the central bank announcement that no institutions or individuals are allowed to use their platforms for any crypto-related activity. In addition to those remarks, Alipay also pledged to step up investigations against crypto transactions on its platform.
The announcement isn't a new policy for Beijing, but it does reinforce how far the country is willing to go to restrict the usage of bitcoin and other digital coins.
Over the weekend, Chinese state media reported that the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan ordered a halt to all crypto mining operations and cut off the power supply to many mining facilities. The province is a major hub for mining, the process of using powerful computers to run and solve algorithms that generate new cryptocurrency coins and verify transactions.
While China doesn't completely ban cryptos, regulators in 2013 declared that bitcoin was not a real currency and forbade financial and payment institutions from transacting with it. At the time, they cited the risk that bitcoin could be used for money laundering, as well as the need to "maintain financial stability" and "protect the yuan's status as a fiat currency."
The growing crackdown is also in part to boost China's state-backed digital yuan initiative, which authorities want to implement so they can keep money flows in check.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.