Chinese Exchange to Launch Platform Based Outside of the Country

Chinese cryptocurrency exchange ViaBTC has announced its intention to launch a trading platform based outside of China. The decision to establish an overseas-based platform follows announcements that the exchange will shut down operations in mainland China on September 30th.

ViaBTC has revealed plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange platform outside of mainland China. The company estimates that one-third of its customers are based outside of China. ViaBTC’s chief executive, Yang Haipo, has expressed the company’s belief that expectation that “overseas users will continue to use the ViaBTC platform.”

Last week, ViaBTC issued an official statement revealing that the company would be “clos[ing]… for exchange business in mainland China on September 30th”. ViaBTC is a cryptocurrency technology company that launched in 2016. Initially, the company ran a mining pool and provided cloud mining services, before launching its exchange platform during May this year after having raised 20 million CNY ($2.9 million USD approximately) from Bitmain Technologies. ViaBTC previously stated its intention to first target China’s domestic cryptocurrency trading market before seeking to expand to target overseas customers.

ViaBTC intends to continue to operate its bitcoin mining pool, with Yang Haipo telling Chinese media that the company is “yet to receive notice that it needs to halt mining, so mining is operating as usual.” Despite recent speculation that China may seek to extend its cryptocurrency crackdown to target mining, several major figures within the cryptocurrency community have refuted the rumors. Litecoin creator, Charlie Lee issued a tweet stating that “a trusted sourse says there’s no truth to China banning [bitcoin] mining or network.” MGT Capital’s John McAfee has also refuted the validity of rumors pertaining to a crackdown on mining, citing a private discussion with Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu as the basis for his assessment.

Yang Haipo has stated his belief that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will continue to be traded throughout China despite the crackdown, emphasizing the challenges associated with attempting to enforce a ban on bitcoin due to the fluidity of virtual currencies. “The bitcoin network is fully distributed, even if there is the great firewall, users can easily bypass this using methods like VPN,” he said, referring to a virtual private network…as long as one computer in China is synchronized on the bitcoin network, every other computer will also obtain the information on the network.”

Do you expect that other Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges will seek to launch platforms outside of mainland China? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!