The cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin liquidated Beijing Lekuda Network Technology Co., Ltd., a Beijing-based company. This was reported by journalist Colin Wu.
The Beijing company of the Chinese exchange OKCoin announced its dissolution on June 24. It was the main company of this exchange before 2017. pic.twitter.com/ImvgZHH6yo
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 28, 2021
According to Wu, the decision was made on June 24, 2021. Later the reporter added a screenshot of a post by the exchange’s founder Star Xu showing a ship at sea and suggested that this was a hint that the company would leave China.
OK founder Star Xu posted «departing from the mainland by boat» picture, implying that the business will leave China. https://t.co/r1QEjiG4iQ pic.twitter.com/qACZkRAUun
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 28, 2021
OKCoin representatives did not respond to ForkLog’s request.
According to information on the site, the company is represented in the US, Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore. The platform opened in October 2020.
BTCChina exits its digital-asset trading business
The repressive policy of the PRC toward cryptocurrencies and mining has compelled local industry players to rethink their approach to doing business. The former operator of China’s oldest Bitcoin exchange—BTCC—BTCChina, a Hong Kong-registered company, sold its stake in the Singaporean trading platform ZG.com to an unnamed crypto fund in Dubai, according to the South China Morning Post.
According to the report, BTCChina closed the deal in May 2020 and decided to fully exit the digital-asset trading business, “in response to the policy of the [Chinese] government”.
According to the publication, the company will focus on “other uses of blockchain” as the Chinese authorities back the technology in order to build a “leading industrial system” on its basis.
BTCChina closed its namesake Bitcoin exchange in 2017 when China banned cryptocurrency trading. The international platform BTCC, owned by it, was acquired in 2018 by a Hong Kong-based investment fund. It continued to operate normally, remaining inaccessible to Chinese residents.
According to SCMP, in July 2020 BTCChina said that the company and its founders had no relation to BTCC’s activities.
On June 22, BTCC published a notice stating that the platform would temporarily lift the ban on virtual-currency operations, as it focuses on trading derivatives.
The Huobi cryptocurrency exchange, in turn, restricted access for investors from China and the United Kingdom to trading derivative instruments on digital assets. Residents of the PRC can still conduct spot trades on the platform.
Earlier, Huobi refused to host miners in mainland China. The OKEx trading platform temporarily halted trading of its native token OKB on its p2p platform for Chinese citizens.
In May 2021, three associations under the NBK issued a joint notice prohibiting companies from supporting a cryptocurrency-related business.
In the same month, Vice Premier Liu He said authorities intended to take measures against mining of cryptocurrencies and trading of Bitcoin.
Later, Xinhua News Agency criticised digital gold and its mining methods. Within a month, authorities in several Chinese provinces ordered miners to cease operations. Among them: Yunnan, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia.
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