The trading price of Bitcoin, the algorithms-powered virtual currency, as of writing is about $530 on the trading platform Mt. Gox. Looking at real-time trading platforms the trading volume from China has been among the top markets worldwide. According to Bitcoin Charts, 31% of the total exchange volume worldwide is traded in CNY (Chinese Yuan).
That’s why we gathered a panel of Bitcoin exchange operators and investors at TechCrunch Shanghai to chat about it. Wang How, co-founder of Bihang, said they had ran out of money soon after their trading platform was launched two months ago.
Okcoin, a China-based Bitcoin trading platform released in the past July, claims the trading volume tripled in the past months (report in Chinese). Today at our event he concludes that 1) the value of Bitcoin would continue going up, 2) the commissions fee rates are lower than what traditional financial services charge. He thinks Bitcoin is a unavoidable trend.
Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China, thinks Bitcoin is the first time one currency has so many advantages, 1) scarcity, 2) distributed computing 3) digital payment 4) direct transactions that you don’t need any third-parties to process money and 5) it’s very safe that theoretically it cannot be stolen.
As there’s few regulations in place in China, Bitcoin buyers or exchange operators are facing high risks. Hong Kong-based trading platform GBL simply disappeared after the platform was hacked and BTCs were stolen. Mainland China-based 42BTC failed to refund users who paid to buy Bitcoin mining machines.