As expected, China has decided to close Bitcoin exchanges in the country. The government has ordered all exchanges in main cities to shut down their operations by September 20.

Citing a document leaked on the Chinese social network Weibo, Coindesk reported that the exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai were directed by regulators to prepare and submit their plans for the suspension of their services.

According to the document, the exchanges in Beijing were asked to stop registration of new users on September 15. In addition, regulators directed all exchanges to publicly announce the shutdown.

All cryptocurrency exchanges are required to file “risk-free” plans with regulators about their exit process, which is set to begin at the market before 18:30 local time on Wednesday, September 20, according to the document.

The exchanges are also required to submit all user data to the local authorities. The regulator directed the exchanges to ensure all of their staff, as well as shareholders, are present in Beijing during the shutdown.

Meanwhile, BTC China, one of the top three exchanges in China, officially announced that it will stop all trading for Chinese customers from September 30.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently banned initial coin offering (ICO), which is an unregulated way of crowdfunding using cryptocurrency.

China Closing Bitcoin Exchanges for ‘Good Reasons’: Expert

Paul Armstrong, an emerging technology adviser, believes that China is closing the exchanges for “good reasons,” according to a report in BBC News.

“I think it is right they’re being cautious at this time,” Armstrong was quoted as saying by BBC. “Bitcoin is by proxy unregulated and peer-to-peer, it’s a very volatile currency.”

“They’re shutting it down for now, but it doesn’t mean that in six months or so they won’t create new Bitcoin regulations like Japan and Australia did,” he added.