The South American country's securities regulator has prohibited local investment funds from buying digital cash, Reuters reports. Cryptocurrencies cannot be considered financial assets, the regulator ruled.

Earlier in December, Brazilian authorities published a warning about the risks associated with digital currencies. Brazil has had seven public hearings on bitcoin before finally cracking down on it.

"According to a study by Credit Suisse, Brazil's productivity has not risen since 1981, and it's not going to rise if the government keeps banning everything that can make us more productive," Brazilian media commentator and popular YouTube blogger Raphaël Lima said, criticizing the decision. "And with an official 12.4 percent unemployment rate, anything that can generate a job should be welcomed with wide-open arms."

According to an internal memo from a government meeting seen by Reuters, Beijing will continue to apply pressure to the virtual currency trade and prevent the growth of risks in that market.

National and local authorities should ban venues that provide centralized trading of digital currencies, including bitcoin as the biggest one, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Pan Gongsheng said.

Regulators need to ban individuals or institutions that provide market-making activities, guarantees, or settlement services for centralized trading of the currencies, such as online "wallet" service providers, he said.

"The financial work conference clearly called for limiting 'innovations' that deviate from the need of the real economy and escape regulation," Pan said, referring to last week's meeting.

He added that the authorities should block domestic and foreign websites, close mobile apps that provide centralized virtual currency trading services to Chinese users, and sanction platforms that provide cryptocurrency payment services. He also called for local authorities to investigate services that help people move funds overseas.

Once a global hub for bitcoin trading and mining, China accounted for more than two-thirds of the world's bitcoin-mining operations. Recently, however, Chinese regulators started cracking down on virtual currencies, explaining it as a fight with capital outflow. They claimed the trade in cryptocurrencies was being used by Chinese citizens to move cash abroad.

Last year, regulators banned initial coin offerings, shut down local cryptocurrency trading exchanges, and limited bitcoin mining.

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Protesting French prison guards have pushed back against riot police and shouted down the justice minister amid demonstrations at several prisons over violent inmates and overcrowding.

Dozens of union activists lit a fire and were surrounded by riot police on Tuesday morning at the notoriously violent Fresnes prison, south of Paris.

Protesters shouting the national anthem greeted the justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, as she visited a prison in Vendin-le-Vieil, northern France, to try to calm tensions.

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