Bitcoin and ether tumbled Friday, with traders rattled by tough talk out of China.

The price of bitcoin fell nearly 6% to $42,124.73, according to Coin Metrics data. Ether, the second-largest digital currency, dropped 8% to $2,894.36.

It comes after the People’s Bank of China said in a Q&A that all crypto-related activities are illegal. Services offering trading, order matching or derivatives for virtual currencies are strictly prohibited, the PBOC said, while overseas exchanges are also illegal.

Beijing has cracked down sharply on crypto this year. The Chinese government moved to stamp out digital currency mining, the energy-intensive operation that validates transactions and produces new coins. That led to sharp slump in bitcoin’s processing power as miners took their equipment offline…read more.