BTC China

BTC China
Industry Bitcoin Exchange
Headquarters Shanghai, China
Key people
 Bobby Lee, CEO
Website vip.btcchina.com

BTC China, based in Shanghai, China, is the world's second largest Bitcoin exchange by volume as of October 2014.[1] Founded in June 2011, it was the China's first Bitcoin exchange, and most of its customers are thought to be Chinese.[2] In November 2013, the company had 20 employees.[2]

History

Company CEO Bobby Lee approached the then two-person company in early 2013, and after investing his own money and attracting investors, oversaw the company's rapid expansion and marketshare growth by the end of the year.[2] The Stanford computer science graduate, whose brother founded the cryptocurrency Litecoin, previously worked for Yahoo! in the United States, and for Walmart China as Vice President of Technology.[2]

In November 2013, BTC China raised $5 million in Series A funding from investors Lightspeed China Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.[3]

On 18 December 2013, BTC China announced that it was temporarily suspending acceptance of Chinese yuan deposits, attributing the decision to government regulations, following a 5 December statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC).[4] On 30 January 2014, the exchange resumed accepting yuan deposits, after further studying the PBOC statement and other rules.[5] While the PBOC prohibited banks from trading in Bitcoin, BTC China explained that they were accepting yuan into their corporate bank account, and transferring that money to their customer accounts, before it was traded for bitcoins.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Bitcoin Market". Bitcoin Charts. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Hill, Kashmir (2013-11-08). "From Walmart To Bitcoin: The CEO Behind The Chinese Exchange Sending BTC To New Highs". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  3. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (2013-11-18). "As Chinese Investors Pile Into Bitcoin, China’s Oldest Exchange, BTC China, Raises $5M From Lightspeed". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  4. ↑ Rose, Adam (2013-12-18). "China tightens curbs on bitcoin trade". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Casey, Michael J. (2014-01-31). "China Bitcoin exchange restores deposit facility". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-03-03.

External links