(Yicai Global) Sept. 27 -- Shares of Huobi Technology Holdings plunged after the offshore cryptocurrency exchange said it had stopped registering new Chinese mainland users following China’s total ban on crypto trading and mining.

After dropping as much as 33 percent in Hong Kong earlier today, Huobi [HKG:1611] closed 22 percent down at HKD7.82 (USD1).

The stock lost 14.6 percent on Sept. 24, the day China’s central bank and nine other government bodies announced that cryptocurrency-related transactions and mining activities are illegal. Huobi halted the registration of new Chinese mainland users the same day, the firm said yesterday, adding that the accounts of existing Chinese users will be cleaned up by year-end.

Founded in Beijing in 2013, Huobi was once one of China’s top three cryptocurrency exchanges. In 2014, it completed a Series A financing round led by Sequoia Capital, raising tens of millions of yuan. It moved out of China in 2017, when the country outlawed such trading, and is now registered in the Seychelles with its main office in Hong Kong.

Fellow crypto exchange operator Binance has also stopped accepting new Chinese users, Bloomberg News reported on Sept. 25. Another, three-year-old Blue Helix Exchange, said on the same day that it will gradually close its services, ending withdrawals from Oct. 8 and halting operations on Oct. 16.

Editor: Futura Costaglione