Bitcoin continued its decline after last week's failed attempts to get beyond the $41,100 level. This time, the Chinese authorities have found a new way to deal with cryptocurrencies, which continues to put pressure on the market, which has not particularly recovered from the May drop.

Chinese authorities today ordered local banks and payment platform Ant Group Co.'s Alipay to no longer provide services related to cryptocurrency trading, once again tightening their approach to the industry.

Financial institutions such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., and Alipay were summoned to meet with Central Bank authorities, the People's Bank of China said in a statement. The ban was imposed on services that provide access to speculation with cryptocurrencies. The People's Bank of China believes that such activities violate the financial order, as well as generates risks of criminal activity related to illegal international asset transfers and money laundering. In addition to banning the provision of products or services that facilitate such activities, institutions were also ordered to disable payment channels for crypto exchanges and OTC platforms.

The next step of the Chinese authorities, of course, dealt a blow to the cryptocurrency market, but it has long been asking for a correction, after an unsuccessful attempt to get beyond the level of $41,100. In recent weeks, cryptocurrencies have been under quite a lot of pressure from mining to trading, which is why bitcoin failed to recover seriously last week.

There is also information that in many Chinese cities, where there is active bitcoin mining, work is underway to eradicate this type of activity.

As for the technical picture of bitcoin, it has already come close to its major support of $30,900, on which a lot depends. Its breakdown will be a kind of signal for profit-taking, which will lead to a sharp increase in panic among investors and cause a new wave of decline in bitcoin in the areas of $25,800 and $21,600. Only there will it be possible to observe the active return of major players betting on the continued growth of bitcoin in the medium term. It will be possible to say that the situation has stabilized only after the bulls regain the level of $36,300, which will allow them to get close to $41,000 per bitcoin.

And while the Chinese authorities are coming up with schemes to deal with cryptocurrencies, Securitize Inc., which is developing a blockchain platform for investors to buy and sell shares of closed private companies and other assets, together with Morgan Stanley, raised $48 million. The Series B round, which also includes Blockchain Capital, marks the first investment in the blockchain industry by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value Investing, the company said in a news release.

Morgan Stanley said it sees this as the future of finance. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Securitize, Carlos Domingo, the potential of the market is simply huge, and now is the time to engage in its development. The move is also a sign that Wall Street continues to embrace new blockchain technologies, including the use of digital tokens. Securitize plans to soon launch a platform that allows investors to buy and sell shares of private companies in a similar way to how the Robinhood app works for public companies.