Bitcoin not a currency: PBOC official

Bitcoin, a virtual currency, is fundamentally not a currency, Sheng Songcheng, head of the statistics department at the People's Bank of China (PBOC). was quoted by news portal cnstock.com as saying in a report published on Thursday.

It is hard for the likes of Bitcoin to become a currency, Sheng said, noting Bitcoin is merely a Utopia for technology supremacists and absolute liberalists.

But meanwhile, the emergence of Bitcoin indicates worries over inflation, Sheng said, urging central banks across the world to tighten liquidity controls to keep overall price levels stable.

The PBOC has banned all financial and payment institutions from establishing any Bitcoin services since December.