BTC China (BTCC) was one of China’s oldest cryptocurrency exchanges before it announced its exit from the nation’s Bitcoin market.
Founded in 2011 by Huang Xiaoyu and Yang Linke, BTCC has announced it will be closing up shop and exiting from business related to Bitcoin. The exchange was responsible for pushing the idea of crypto to a log of new Chinese investors when the idea of digital currency was still confusing to many. At one point, BTCC claimed it made up for more than 80% of all crypto trading in the world. According to the South China Morning Post, BTCC also sold its stake in the Singapore-based exchange ZG.com.
Despite their history, BTCC got caught up in the sweeping government bans based on digital currencies and decided to call it a day. “In response to the government policy,” was the official reason given by BTCC as to why they are exiting the market.
BTCC is not alone in its frustration with new regulations from the Chinese government. The bans by Beijing have caused a number of major exchanges to either close shop or move operations elsewhere, such as Huobi, Binance, and Okcoin. All had Chinese founders and were eventually nudged out of the country.
BTC China will now shift its focus to other uses of Blockchain that are not as regulated by the government. Despite the negative feelings by officials, the government has stated their support for applications of blockchain that would help build an advanced industrial system based on the technology.
While BTCC will be leaving China, its Hong Kong office won’t be affected and the company intends to create more blockchain-based apps as part of a new plan to continue doing business in the crypto space.
Regulations and bans becoming the norm in China
Beijing has been busy for the last year in the fight against cryptocurrencies and the assumed threat to China’s financial stability. The nation also has expressed concerns about the volatility of crypto prices and how that could negatively impact national investors. The latest bitcoin spike and then crash has local and national governments in China worried about what is to come. This has led to, among other things, a move to shut down mining operations in a number of areas such as Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. These prefectures became popular destinations for crypto miners due to their hydro and coal power resources.
Much like the restrictions on trading crypto have caused many to flee China, the mining ban has had an even larger impact. Some reports suggest that China, before the bans, was responsible for more than 75% of the world’s crypto mining. The recent exile of most of those miners has led them to seek refuge in Kazakhstan and Texas among others.
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