Business
12:01, 17-Sep-2017
China’s major cryptocurrency platforms to end all trading on Sept. 30
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Several major cryptocurrency platforms in China announced Saturday to “end all trading” on September 30, just one day after they claimed trading not involving Chinese yuan would remain unaffected.
Major cryptocurrency trading platform Btcchina.com said on its website that it will shut down all trading on September 30, including exchanges of cryptocurrencies and assured that the platform has enough capital for every user to withdraw their cash even after the trading deadline.
Btcchina.com sent an e-mail to all registered users on Thursday advising users that they “can no longer deposit and withdraw Chinese yuan due to new regulations,” but can still buy and withdraw cryptocurrencies with remaining yuan balance.
Huobi.com, another trading platform in China, updated its announcements released Friday and said it will also end all cryptocurrency trading at the end of September.
Both of the two platforms said their closure decision is based on the document released on September 4 by seven China regulators including the central bank, declaring all Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) illegal, and ordered all related fundraising activities to be halted immediately.
Huobi also said in the latest announcement that China’s regulators did not define cryptocurrency as illegal so the platform still expects to offer digital assets management service in compliance with the regulations.
China has been a major market for cryptocurrency with Chinese yuan overtaking the US dollar as the dominant currency and make up 23 percent of global bitcoin trading now. China is also home to many of world’s largest bitcoin miners.
However, after Bitcoin and Litecoin plummeted to a week bottom price on Friday after the initial trading suspension announcements, the market shows little reaction to the updated trading termination.
Prices of Bitcoin and Litecoin dropped 0.92 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively, Saturday morning.
Some traders are still optimistic that cryptocurrencies can survive and thrive without the China market.
Stelian Balta, founder and Managing Partner of HyperChain Capital, acknowledged that the ban in China has a short term negative effect on the prices but stressed digital assets are a global phenomenon, Forbes reported Sunday.
But JP Morgan Chase & Co’s CEO Jamie Dimon assail cryptocurrency vigorously and said it “won’t end well.”
“It’s a fraud” and “will eventually blow up,” he told an investor conference in New York on Tuesday, noting he would fire any employee trading bitcoin for being “stupid.”