Bitcoin price has not taken a hit or is not likely to experience further shake up as BTCC announced it is suspending aspects of transactions including the withdrawal of digital currencies traded on its platform.
It is joining two other top Bitcoin exchanges - OKCoin and Huobi - which had on Thursday, Feb. 9 announced the suspension of their trading activities.
In their separate announcements, the two exchanges cite that the suspension which is as a result of their upgrading of an anti-money laundering AML system in accordance with China’s laws and regulations could last for a month.
Bitcoin price picks up
Bitcoin price dropped by about 10 percent immediately after the news came out as there were reports of panic-selling since the announcements. It slumped from as high as $1074 to $957 in a few hours according to coinmarketcap.com.
Bitcoin price has started picking up as at the time of this writing and not much seems to have changed since BTCC made its announcement.
Though not mentioned in any part of their announcements, the new development is coming after the country’s central bank, the PBoC, met with nine other Bitcoin exchanges in the country.
BTCChina says they are upgrading an inspection and verification system for Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawals to aggressively guard against money laundering, illegal money exchange, pyramid schemes and other illegal activity.
Unlike a month for others, BTCC estimates that their withdrawals will be delayed by roughly 10 days.
China factor
China-based exchanges had been in control of the entire Bitcoin market in transaction-related activities for the past years before the Chinese government intervened in the market in January significantly affecting its trading.
Though the situation reportedly caused a shift in capital flows, there are claims that most of the demand for Bitcoin still originates from China as Chinese people have been passing their money through the Japanese and US exchanges.
The situation, while being considered to be making Bitcoin’s distribution be more decentralized in terms of ownership as those sold out after the recent are reportedly picked up by mostly new users, has also triggered discussions in some quarters about the need to shift decentralized rather than centralized Bitcoin exchanges.
Other Bitcoin exchanges that reportedly had their activities interrupted on Feb. 9, possibly as a result of the sudden slump in price, include CEX, LocalBitcoins and Kraken. Whether this is just a coincidence cannot be confirmed.