The price of bitcoin surged past $4,000 in trading Monday following a market slump driven by a decision by China to ban bitcoin exchanges, as well as negative comments about the cryptocurrency from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon.

The ban in China, reported by SiliconANGLE on Sept. 11 but seemingly mostly unnoticed by the market until Chinese exchange BTCC announced it would be closing Sept. 14, saw the price of bitcoin drop from a high of just shy of $5,000 Sept. 1 to a recent low of $3,226. Bitcoin Monday night was trading at $3,969 after having breached the $4,000 mark earlier in the day.

Part of the bounce in the price may have been driven in part, ironically, by support from JPMorgan Chase. Zerohedge first reported on Sunday that the merchant bank had been heavily buying bitcoin on behalf of clients at the bottom of the market, this despite its CEO being in part blamed for the price drop to begin with. The same report noted that JPMorgan’s purchase of bitcoin for its clients after its CEO described it the cryptocurrency as a “fraud” would seemingly offer no sense of fiduciary care, adding, “Is JPMorgan Securities knowingly allowing clients to buy securities it believes are a fraud?”

The uptick in the price of bitcoin comes as China appears to be further cracking down on cryptocurrency trading. There are new reports that the central government is planning on banning all bitcoin trading, not just through bitcoin exchanges but also peer-to-peer trading between individuals.

The ban may even go as far as banning bitcoin mining, a move that could cause serious instability for bitcoin. As of July, Chinese bitcoin miners accounted for 81 percent of the market. The bitcoin blockchain is built to allow for fluctuations in mining activity with a consequent price elasticity, but pulling 81 percent of bitcoin miners off the blockchain would be unprecedented and highly likely to cause the price of bitcoin to plummet once again.

Photo: bfishadow/Flickr