Just as expected they would really do such thing. They cant able to completely close exchanges since they know they can able to make money on that and now they are returning but on a regulated way which is somehow a good step by them.It will surely affect crpyto currency prices on this one.Thanks for the link by the way.
I doubt that they can shut all those down so the best thing for them to do is probably regulate the exchanges. China is a huge market for cryptocurrencies and they are so involved that it would be hard to stop it now. I think most Chinese would find ways to buy and hold cryptocurrencies anyway. We'll see what happens, but I don't think they will completely ban them.