The game is afoot in China, that much is evident. More specifically, there are rumors regarding a crackdown on Bitcoin trading services. Although there is little evidence to back up this claim, some changes are taking place as we speak. BitKan, one of the many OTC Bitcoin trading service providers in China, will suspend its operations for a time. It appears this is a direct result of the recent ban on ICO activity rather than the platform being shut down according to new guidelines.
Any news coming out of China needs to be taken with a few scoops of salt these days. That is especially true when the news relates to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. There is far too much confusion right now to make level-headed assessments. For Bitkan, things have come to an abrupt halt. More specifically, the Bitcoin OTC service provider is suspending its servers for an unknown period of time. The suspension goes into effect on September 14th. They will keep withdrawals and deposits active, but trading itself will become impossible.
A Tough Decision by BitKan due to Regulatory Pressure
Contrary to what some people may claim, this has nothing to do with the Chinese government cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges. Instead, the company’s decision is a result of the ICO ban active in the country. The company faces scrutiny from Chinese regulators, which influences this decision. Rest assured some media outlets will try to twist these words in the coming days. It has nothing to do with any suspension of exchanges whatsoever.
For the time being, it is unclear how long this suspension will last. The company has not issued any official statement in this regard. Nor do we know if they are scrutinized for KYC and AML procedures ether. Once again, a lot of confusion and vague statements which leave room for speculation. We do know the OTC services suspension will affect both website and mobile users come September 14th. The company has been linked to some ICO projects in the past which may explain this sudden scrutiny by regulators.
The bigger question is whether or not other OTC service providers will take a similar decision in the future. Cryptocurrency ICOs were quite big in China for quite some time. Any company associated with these procedures will effectively be under a lot of heat from regulators. BitKan is unfortunately caught up in this sweep, but it is not entirely unexpected either. Rest assured we will hear some more stories like this one over the coming weeks.
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