The buzz, speculation and volatility over bitcoin as a digital currency is nowhere stronger than in China. Ask Bobby Lee, the CEO of China’s bitcoin exchange BTC China, based in Shanghai.
Bitcoin trading has cooled off considerably in China after a peak last year, when China contributed half the global trading volume in the digital currency, Lee says.
China still counts six bitcoin exchanges, and BTC China, formed in 2011, is the largest one, says Lee, a former Yahoo YHOO +0.84% engineer in Silicon Valley for eight years and WalMart technology manager in China. Keep reading post at Forbes.
The cooldown has come after China’s central bank ruled that bitcoin cannot be used as a currency while Alibaba determined that the digital currency can’t be used as payment on its Taobao e-commerce website.
While China has not banned the trading of bitcoin, regulations threaten to curtail its development for financial transactions. Interviewed at CoinSummit in San Francisco, Lee cited the main issues with bitcoin in China (and elsewhere) are transparency, security, solvency and false claims about trading volumes to gain market share. See Silicon Dragon video interview with Lee.
BTC China's venture capital investor Ron Cao of Lightspeed China will be a featured speaker at Silicon Dragon 2014 in Hong Kong Cyberport.
Bitcoin trading has cooled off considerably in China after a peak last year, when China contributed half the global trading volume in the digital currency, Lee says.
Transactions fell from a high of 100,000 daily late last year to 10,000 by this March while bitcoin prices dropped by 80 percent from a peak of $1200, he notes. Meanwhile, at least six bitcoin exchanges disappeared over the last two years in China, says Lee. He predicts that another two bitcoin exchanges will go bust over the next years.
The cooldown has come after China’s central bank ruled that bitcoin cannot be used as a currency while Alibaba determined that the digital currency can’t be used as payment on its Taobao e-commerce website.
While China has not banned the trading of bitcoin, regulations threaten to curtail its development for financial transactions. Interviewed at CoinSummit in San Francisco, Lee cited the main issues with bitcoin in China (and elsewhere) are transparency, security, solvency and false claims about trading volumes to gain market share. See Silicon Dragon video interview with Lee.
BTC China's venture capital investor Ron Cao of Lightspeed China will be a featured speaker at Silicon Dragon 2014 in Hong Kong Cyberport.
