Just about an hour ago, the Chinese exchange BTC China has announced its plans to cease operations and close down amid the Cryptocurrency crackdown occuring in China
Official Tweet:
This is devestating news devastating for Bitcoin as BTC China was one of the largest Bitcoin Exchange currently in existence.
For the Chinese Bitcoin traders, they have reacted by crushing the price of the most popular Cryptocurrency by over 15% in a matter of minutes on that exchange.
Though the price collapse has yet to completely propagate across all major Bitcoin exchanges as BTC China is Trading roughly 10% under other high volume exchanges
This could be caused by an overwhelming amount of Chinese users wanting a quick exit and willing to take a 10% hit. To say the price will continue to drop across the board is unknown at this time as large exchanges such as Bitstamp and bitfinex are showing strong support around the $3,500 range where-as BTC China is Trading close to $3,100.
It is fairly common for exchanges to have pricing variations and due to the closure I can only assume the spread will continue until BTC China finally tosses in the towel and exits the Bitcoin Scene....
It's obviously a sad day for many cryptocurrency enthusiast as they watch one of the largest and longest lasting exchanges calling it quits.
In a different light, the exchange is closing due to regulation issues and not because they were hacked. Many of us have witnessed large exchanges collapse due to hacks and bad business practices...
At least they announced a closure and plan to end legitimately in good faith - something to be respected
As for bitcoin values, this obviously has caused some panic and we could see a major price decline possibly under $3,000 but like I stated. The other large exchanges are showing support at much higher levels than are currently being traded at BTC China.
I personally expect this news to blow over as it's really not that bad and, in my opinion, it definitely doesn't warrant such a sell-off in which we have witnessed over the past hour.
In fact, this could be presenting a prime opportunity to jump in as prices have receded far off the all time high of $5,000 in a matter of weeks.
Bitcoin has always been volatile. This is nothing new -
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