There is a Zerohedge story that claims capital controls in China are responsible for driving the price up. However according to Bitcoinmagazine neither BTCC or OKCoin agree that's the reason for the price rise. Both of them say there are better loopholes than Bitcoin around capital controls, and that the Bitcoin price rise is due to speculation.
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/chinese-exchanges-agree-bitcoin-price-has-nothing-to-do-with-capital-controls-1446233197According to Bobby Lee, the Founder and CEO of BTCC, while a hedge against capital controls is certainly a use case for bitcoin, it’s not what is driving this run up.
“I can tell you, being on the ground with the bitcoin exchange in China, I can guestimate that the vast majority of trading volume is not for that reason. The reality is, there are many loopholes around the capital controls. For the most part, it’s not a strict, strict capital controls,” he explained in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine. “If you look at countries like Myanmar and Argentina, which have very strict capital controls, you’ll have the price of bitcoin to USD [U.S. dollars] is much greater.”
Jack Liu, head of international at OKCoin, also disagreed with the notion that it had anything to do with capital controls. In an email to Bitcoin Magazine , he said, “I don't think so. It's speculation.”