Baidu Inc., China’s biggest internet search engine company, changed the game for the cyber currency known as Bitcoin on Friday, after a mandate from the Chinese government forced financial institutions throughout the country to reconsider their stance on the virtual monetary system.

Understandably – since Baidu is more or less China’s version of Google – the corporation’s policies regarding Bitcoin have had quite the effect on the currency’s value. Earlier this year, Bitcoin prices were hovering below the $150 benchmark. However, in October, after a Baidu division began accepting Bitcoin payments for website hosting ventures, the value of the currency soared worldwide, reaching peak prices of more than $1,000 a coin last week.

In many ways, Baidu’s embrace of the Bitcoin signified a “coming into the mainstream” event for the currency, which has long been used around the fringes of the internet – mostly by criminals wishing to remain anonymous and untraceable. Baidu’s decision to accept Bitcoin payments for certain services, however, sent the value of the currency skyrocketing around the world. Last week, an American buyer completed a car dealership transaction for a $100,000 Tesla Model S Sedan, and he did it entirely in Bitcoin. For a moment, it appeared as if the currency could become a more reliable monetary system than the struggling American dollar.

However, while the U.S. dollar’s biggest problem is that it isn’t backed by anything with intrinsic value, Bitcoin’s problems are far more numerous. Not only is the currency unbacked by gold or any other commodity, it also does not exist in any physical format, nor is it regulated by any banking agency – meaning that values can fluctuate wildly in a matter of hours.

According to Bloomberg Business Week, wild fluctuations are precisely what happened when the People’s Bank of China (PBC) announced a ban on the use of Bitcoin among Chinese financial institutions. The governmental banking agency insisted that Bitcoin had no real meaning, and that it couldn’t be considered in the same legal regards as other currencies due to its lack of safeguards for any sort of financial stability.

The government hasn’t banned Bitcoin use entirely in China: the public is still permitted to use the currency online with retailers and other companies that will accept it. However, the PBC ban may cut down significantly on the businesses willing to accept Bitcoin as payment, not just in China, but all around the world.

Ironically, the PBC Bitcoin ban – and Baidu’s resulting announcement that it would cease Bitcoin transactions – proved just how unstable the currency really is. In the wake of the tumultuous announcements, the Bitcoin currency lost between 20 and 30 percent of its value at different exchanges around the web.