[BAN] BTCChina, OKCoin, FXBTC, BTC38, Huobi (updated: April 4)

[y3804]

Latest update: April 4, 2014 (See BTC38 and BTCChina)

FXBTC

Today, FXBTC, like many of the Bitcoin exchanges in China, received multiple phone calls from our banks asking us to cancel our accounts with them. Their reason is that the PBOC has ask them to enforce their regulations regarding Bitcoin. Some of the banks even ask us to cancel our accounts no later than tomorrow. FXBTC here confirms those are not rumors, PBOC had indeed sent out memos to banks and third-party payment processing companies, asking them to terminate their business relationships with Bitcoin related companies. FXBTC hope to keep serving our customers. However, since the banks gave us the ultimatum to either cancel our accounts soon or have our asset frozen. We had to made the following difficult decisions

Starting on April 3rd, we will no longer process CNY deposits. Also, we will no longer process CNY withdraws as well after this Sunday (April 6th). We have not receive any message from CaiFuTong (third-party payment processor). Therefore, you can continue to use CaiFuTong to deposit and withdraw for now. We regret these decisions and we are deeply sorry.

OKCoin

Source: https://www.okcoin.com/t-1008202.html

Dear OKCoin Customers,

We were just notified by our third-party payment processors that they need to temporarily suspend their services with us. OKCoin will stop processing deposits via recharge codes as of April 3. Direct bank deposits and withdraws are not effected. We are sorry about the inconvenience.

The recharge codes mentioned above are like BTC-e codes. You can buy them through 3rd parties and it is faster than bank transfers.
OKCoin's update to their earlier announcement

Source: http://weibo.com/okcoin (via Weibo aka Chinese Twitter)
Screenshot: http://imgur.com/ZyVgiHU

We will like to provide some additional details regarding our earlier announcement to suspend third-party deposits. 1. OKCoin is a safe and professional trading platform. Our professionalism extends to our customers and our investors.
2. OKCoin's office is open 24 hours, any information from third-party processors will be announced without delay. We are not the first exchange to suspend deposit via third-party processors and we are not going the be the last one to do so.
3. We have not receive any information from our banks regrading account closure. We do not rule out the possibility that some of our bank accounts will be closed. This is not the first time we have deal with something like this. As of now, you can still deposits and withdraws CNY via banks.
4. We are one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange. Therefore, we are fully prepared for April 15 and our offshore operation will be online soon.
We need to work together for the future of Bitcoin. Please don't speculate or doubt our legitimacy like the market manipulators would like you to. OKCoin understand how everyone must feel right now. We hope that you don't spread rumors or believe in rumors. OKCoin will be with you no matter what.

BTCChina

Source: http://weibo.com/bitcoinchina (via Weibo aka Chinese Twitter)

Everyone, we have to temporarily suspend deposits via JD, our third-party processors. In the meantime, you can still deposit CNY directly through your bank or use BTCC Code to fund your account. CNY withdraws are not effected at this time.

NEW!

Source: http://www.coindesk.com/btc-china-dismisses-pboc-fears-open-letter/

What we’re hearing is that banks will disallow us from using commercial bank accounts to store customer deposits, what’s not clear to us yet is whether the business of running a bitcoin exchange will be classed as legal or not.

BTC38

NEW!

Source: http://www.weibo.com/btc38?topnav=1&wvr=5&topsug=1 (Translation by BING)

We received a clear Merchants Bank, Shenzhen Branch of China
Construction Bank's notice, that it could not continue to provide
settlement for the Bitcoin industry, so we can not continue to use the
public accounts, the more feasible the personal card (I.E. Vouchers like BTCChina). We also consulted
the United States, livelihood and other banks, the other account
services are unable to provide feedback. Some people say that the era of
deliberately shutting down recharge deliberately operate covertly, and
if so, we would not have spread the OKCOIN.

HUOBI

Source: http://www.huobi.com/news/index.php?a=show_notice&id=286

Dear Customers of Huobi,

Huobi had been contacting various government agencies about the “April 15” news that had been spreading on the internet. Unfortunately, we were not able to get any useful information regrading the matter from those agencies. Therefore, we cannot give our investors a clear answer at this time. We are sorry about that.

Yesterday, many Chinese exchanges announced that they had received instructions to either stop processing third-party transactions and/or to stop direct bank deposits. Many investors and members of media had been asking Huobi about the recent development. First of all, we would like to thank all the friends of Huobi for supporting us. We will give you a summery on all the information we have at hand regrading CNY funding (As of April 3, 2014 16:00 Beijing Time).

Huobi's finance department have been talking to third-party processors and multiple banks that we have accounts with. Here is what we know so far.

Third-party Processors:

• We had business relationships with four different processors. One of the processors hinted that it might be risky going forward. The other three processors reported that there will be no problem working with us for now.
• Of the one processor that said that there might risk going forward. They told us that it is because someone reported them to the corresponding government agencies citing violation of PBOC regulation on Bitcoins that was announced on Dec. 5 last year.

Banks:

• We have accounts with the banks listed below. Information from the branches of those banks is that they did not received any memo about Bitcoin in the last three months.
• The banks told us that they have only learn about “April 15” from the news.
• The banks stated that they do not know if the news reported about “April 15” is true.

   Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
    Agricultural Bank of China
    China Construction Bank
    China Merchants Bank

That all the information we here at Huobi have at this time. They are all from direct sources. We try to be as objective as possible. As to why the information we got is different from other exchanges', our best guess is that this could be due to the fact that our exchange is located in different jurisdiction than some of the others and do not share the same providers. As to why different jurisdictions and different providers have different policies? We do not know.

Based on the information we have and the current uncertainty, our third-party payment processors and us came to a mutual decision to stop processing deposits as of April 5. Although, we will upgrade our direct bank deposit service to operate 24 / 7, in order to insure all deposits are processed in a timely matter. Other than the above changes, our CNY withdraw, Bitcoin/Litecoin withdraw and deposit are not effected.

Lastly, Huobi would like to say:

The current uncertainly and elevated price movements led everyone trying their best to find information they that want to heard. The shorts want everything from Bitcoin exchanges to be bad news, they will start their attack at the sight of any good news and vice versa. For this, we will like to let everyone know that Huobi does not have any interest with the shorts or the longs. We announce everything we know and we are a transparent exchange. Only time will tell.

Department of Operation, Huobi

Customer Service Hotline: 4000-600-888

All credits to user Halczy from reddit for April 2 statements.

[Mythul]

So China is not out of the game yet.

OKCoin just recently received a $10 million investment. Do you really think they will go down without a fight ?

Can't wait to hear in 3-5 months about the China offshore ban...

[~Coinseeker~]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

[R2Pleasent]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

I hope so!  But in reality... dream on

[Feri22]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

If this happen, i will sell my house, wife, kids, arms, legs, 1 kidney and i am all in BTC! 

[cosmofly]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

I hope so!  But in reality... dream on

Indeed. Even me, with my extremely limited knowledge about the markets, do not find this a logical outcome. Maybe we'll see the low 300's, but that's really it. There seems to be a lot of resistance around 350.

Also: I believe that most of the panic sellers have left already, but the coming days will have to prove that.

$5 Million between $400 - $200 , why won't they pull out.

[dannyspk]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

I hope so!  But in reality... dream on

Indeed. Even me, with my extremely limited knowledge about the markets, do not find this a logical outcome. Maybe we'll see the low 300's, but that's really it. There seems to be a lot of resistance around 350.

Also: I believe that most of the panic sellers have left already, but the coming days will have to prove that.

$5 Million between $400 - $200 , why won't they pull out.

You must be kidding me with these calculations.

[designfail]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

If this happen, i will sell my house, wife, kids, arms, legs, 1 kidney and i am all in BTC! 

.. and then it suddenly drops to $10.. .. but in the other hand, you still have 1 kidney left..

[fonzie]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

If this happen, i will sell my house, wife, kids, arms, legs, 1 kidney and i am all in BTC! 

.. and then it suddenly drops to $10.. .. but in the other hand, you still have 1 kidney left..

 

[Feri22]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

If this happen, i will sell my house, wife, kids, arms, legs, 1 kidney and i am all in BTC! 

.. and then it suddenly drops to $10.. .. but in the other hand, you still have 1 kidney left..

...or it will jump straight back to $1000 and you will have just your eyes full of tears...we will see...

[bclcjunkie]

if you think china is out of bitcoin game then you must be dreaming... as much as most of us wouldn't want them in bitcoin ecosystem since they tend to be flaky and affect market so much, i personally think they are just warming up to bitcoin and are going to evolve way faster than all these regulations and bans if there are any to begin with... even though chinese come flaky and panicky investors they come on as pretty adaptive as well... so in the meantime i have no doubt there are now more affluent and educated chinese taking interest in bitcoin because they understand it's a global phenomena, i'm sure they will slowly start investing... look how btcchina was quick to introduce voucher system..
imho pboc's hostility towards bitcoin (if there's any) in china locally just reinforces the fact that they view it as a threat to their financial system... all that nobility to protect their own citizens from get rich quick schemes is bs as there are other problems far more serious than bitcoin that cause social problems, like gambling and vice...
 at least once all the exchanges move away offshore i for one don't have to worry anymore what PBOC is going to do tomorrow, and it's going to be china gov on the losing end... although personally i love trolls who keep spreading fear and fud as events like these allow me to increase my bitcoin holdings... 

[romang]

Plenty of other country's support us so who cares.

[y3804]

Bump. All statements updated. (see BTC38 and BTCChina)

TL;DR. Exchanges can't use public accounts to store customer deposits.

[p0peji]

"The shorts want everything from Bitcoin exchanges to be bad news, they will start their attack at the sight of any good news and vice versa"
Why would they state this if the shit hasn't hit the fan yet?

[jl2012]

For the following machine translation, I couldn't find the original text in okcoin's website nor their weibo

Source: Translation by BING.

We received a clear Merchants Bank, Shenzhen Branch of China
Construction Bank's notice, that it could not continue to provide
settlement for the Bitcoin industry, so we can not continue to use the
public accounts, the more feasible the personal card (I.E. Vouchers like BTCChina). We also consulted
the United States, livelihood and other banks, the other account
services are unable to provide feedback. Some people say that the era of
deliberately shutting down recharge deliberately operate covertly, and
if so, we would not have spread the OKCOIN.

[y3804]

For the following machine translation, I couldn't find the original text in okcoin's website nor their weibo

Source: Translation by BING.

We received a clear Merchants Bank, Shenzhen Branch of China
Construction Bank's notice, that it could not continue to provide
settlement for the Bitcoin industry, so we can not continue to use the
public accounts, the more feasible the personal card (I.E. Vouchers like BTCChina). We also consulted
the United States, livelihood and other banks, the other account
services are unable to provide feedback. Some people say that the era of
deliberately shutting down recharge deliberately operate covertly, and
if so, we would not have spread the OKCOIN.

Sorry. Updated the OP. It was BTC38's statement. Weird reference to OKCOIN?

[y3804]

Another interesting statement from Bobby Lee:

“A general lack of domestic investment targets, coupled with the lack of understanding of bitcoin led to bitcoins becoming speculative grade. After the April 15 message, investors will re-evaluate bitcoin, an industry reshuffle may also occur.”

Lee confirms that the ban will happen on April 15 and expects a massive crash. (Industry reshuffle + reevaluation because of too much speculation)

[fonzie]

Another interesting statement from Bobby Lee:

“A general lack of domestic investment targets, coupled with the lack of understanding of bitcoin led to bitcoins becoming speculative grade. After the April 15 message, investors will re-evaluate bitcoin, an industry reshuffle may also occur.”

Lee confirms that the ban will happen on April 15 and expects a massive crash. (Industry reshuffle + reevaluation because of too much speculation)

Wow, that sounds a lot more negative than what he stated he in the days before. Thanks for keeping this thread updated.

[pietje]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

I hope so!  But in reality... dream on

Indeed. Even me, with my extremely limited knowledge about the markets, do not find this a logical outcome. Maybe we'll see the low 300's, but that's really it. There seems to be a lot of resistance around 350.

Also: I believe that most of the panic sellers have left already, but the coming days will have to prove that.

$5 Million between $400 - $200 , why won't they pull out.

Because they want all the cheap btc

[p0peji]

So this is it.  China gone, Mt Gox gone, general public trust gone.  We're going to see 100's again. 

I hope so!  But in reality... dream on

Indeed. Even me, with my extremely limited knowledge about the markets, do not find this a logical outcome. Maybe we'll see the low 300's, but that's really it. There seems to be a lot of resistance around 350.

Also: I believe that most of the panic sellers have left already, but the coming days will have to prove that.

$5 Million between $400 - $200 , why won't they pull out.

Because they want all the cheap btc

Because they dont want prices to plummet before they are done selling their remaining btc