Chinese bitcoin company BTCC has been acquired by a Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund, allowing it to now focus on global cryptocurrency adoption.

Details of the acquisition remain scarce; however, in a press release from BTCC the exchange said that it will now focus on the international market following China’s ban on cryptocurrency trading last year in mainland China.

Bobby Lee, co-founder of BTCC, said:

Today’s acquisition is an incredible milestone for BTCC that validates all of our hard work over the past few years. I’m very excited about the resources this gives BTCC to move faster and aggressively grow our businesses in 2018 and beyond.

According to the statement, BTCC will turn its attention to its three products: BTCC Pool, Mobi, and USD Exchange, which will be led by Denver Zhao, Mark Ma, and Aaron Choi, respectively.

Zhao, BTCC’s senior vice president of BTCC Mining Pool, said that this would enable the cryptocurrency exchange to realise its vision of global digital currency adoption.

We now have the resources to more fully realize our vision of safeguarding and stabilizing digital currencies’ blockchains. Going forward, we’ll provide better, fairer, more transparent, and more comprehensive mining services to our customers worldwide.

China has taken new steps of cracking down on the trading of digital currencies such as bitcoin. According to a report from Bloomberg earlier this month, officials are planning to target domestic and offshore platforms that enable centralised trading, unidentified people have said. An uptick in alternative avenues from people interested in the cryptocurrency market has meant that the government is taking decisive action to block access.

News of the acquisition comes at a time when the digital currency market is experiencing a slump in prices. Last year, bitcoin saw its value increase by nearly 2,000 percent, pushing it to within touching distance of $20,000 for the first time. The start of 2018 has proven to be tough on the cryptocurrency, which has since lost half of its value. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that bitcoin is currently trading at $11,082.

Featured image from Shutterstock.