It began like this: officials from the People's Bank of China stepped into the offices of the largest crypto exchanges in the country and sat down with their executives.
From the financial regulator's Shanghai and Beijing bureaus, the officials told the exchanges they were interested in identifying whether anti-money laundering and capital control mandates were being met.
But according to Robin Zhu, chief operating officer at Huobi, the regulators had an ulterior motive that January day.
"The regulator wanted to grab a big picture of how significant cryptocurrency trading was in China - how does bitcoin work; where does the money come from; where does it go to; how do people make and lose money?" Zhu said.
Westward and eastward expansion
In fact, two of China's largest exchanges at the time, Huobi and OKCoin, already have offerings that again rank within the top 10 in the world by trading volume - Huobi Pro and OKEx, two platforms that now trade cryptocurrencies only.
Loyalty, and revenue, token
Yet, Huobi is still focused on its adding services for its existing user base.
Toward that goal, Huobi even launched its own token, HT, which runs on the ethereum blockchain, as a way to create user loyalty (and bring in some additional revenue).
The rise of Binance
But the PBoC's ruling didn't only add hurdles, it also seemed to lift up a new crypto exchange which has a significant connection to the country.
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https://www.coindesk.com/chinas-crypto-exchanges-didnt-just-survive-theyre-thriving/
