Charlie Shrem, a bitcoin pioneer and the head of business development at popular cryptocurrency wallet platform operator Jaxx, stated that China has no real effect on the future of bitcoin.
Earlier this month, the Chinese government, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), and local financial regulators imposed a nationwide ban on bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms. OKCoin, Huobi and BTCC, the three largest bitcoin exchanges in China, were requested to terminate and halt their operations by the end of October, while other exchanges were forced to shut down their platforms by the end of September.
But, the global bitcoin exchange market is restructuring. The vast majority of trading volume from the Chinese market has moved to Japan and South Korea, two countries that have implemented efficient and practical regulatory frameworks for both cryptocurrency businesses and investors. In fact, earlier this week, the South Korean bitcoin exchange market officially overtook China to become the third largest bitcoin market in the world, behind Japan and the US.
Through the imposition of a nationwide ban on bitcoin exchanges, the Chinese government has further isolated itself from the global bitcoin industry and as Shrem explained, the relevancy of the Chinese market will inevitably decline. In the upcoming months, the exit of the Chinese bitcoin market will only fuel the Japanese and South Korean markets, which are already preparing to serve institutional and retail investors.