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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a5fae82-5341-11e3-9250-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2lMSc2I20The success of BTCChina mirrors the rise and rise of Bitcoin itself. Seen by enthusiasts as a replacement for central bank-issued currencies and by detractors as a bubble and a passing fad, Bitcoin has risen some 5000 per cent this year in US dollar terms. Surging Chinese demand has been one of the main reasons.
“If you look at Bitcoin from a technology perspective, you realise it cannot be boxed. And Chinese people love that,” says Bobby Lee, chief executive officer of BTCChina.
The absence of controls on the peer-to-peer virtual currency, traded largely anonymously and beyond the supervision of national governments, is what has most worried regulators around the world. In China, a country with strict capital controls, it is a big part of what makes Bitcoin so attractive.
Bihang, another Chinese exchange, is explicit on this selling point. “In 200 milliseconds you can move Bitcoin data to the US, for almost no cost,” it says on its website. “The world has never been this flat.”
