The trading vacuum created by the stringent measures and close scrutiny by the People Bank of China’s (PBoC) upon the country’s bitcoin exchanges has led to traders flocking to alternative platforms.
According to Coin.Dance, bitcoin trading volumes on prominent peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange platform LocalBitcoins reached an all-time high during the past week. The same week that saw two of the biggest Chinese bitcoin exchanges., OkCoin and Huobi, freeze withdrawals for up to a month.
Other smaller exchanges have since followed, with the likes ofYunbi, BTC100 and BTCTrade strengthening withdrawal norms. Other exchanges have either suspended bitcoin withdrawals until verification or stretched the withdrawal process for up to 2-3 days.
A total of ¥6.6 million yuan was traded last week. That figure represents a four-fold increase of bitcoin trading in yuan compared to the previous week which totaled under ¥1.5 million.
Predictably, the demand to buy bitcoins without any regulatory oversight by the PBoC has driven price for the cryptocurrency at a premium. The lowest cost for purchasing a bitcoin from a trader on LocalBitcoins is over ¥7000 at the time of publishing. Data from BTCChina’s charts show bitcoin to the Renminbi at ¥6700.
Featured image from Shutterstock. Chart from BitcoinWisdom.
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