Weekly volumes on two of the world’s top over the counter Bitcoin exchange platforms – LocalBitcoins and Paxful – reached an all time high in China in the week ending September 23.

For the first time, more than CNY1.74 mln and CNY115.1 mln were reportedly exchanged on

Paxful and LocalBitcoins respectively in a week making their platforms give Bitcoin traders in China greater access to secondary markets.

The rise in transactions represents what is obtainable by the first week after Chinese authorities asked cryptocurrency exchanges in Shanghai to close all token trading services including BTC/CNY, ETH/CNY and other trading pairs. It is not clear yet if there would be a reversal ora continuous pattern in the trend as recent discussions seem to centre on licenses being issued to exchanges in the future.

Earlier this month, the announcement of a shutdown of trading activities on exchanges coupled with other factors such as the comment by JP Morgan & Chase boss that the cryptocurrency is a “fraud” that will eventually blow up, brought down the price of Bitcoin. It has since rebounded from its low (around $3,222) and now trades around US$3,937.91, edging closer to the US$4,000 mark.

If that persists, it would mean that the short term effect of the two factors has been surmounted and the fundamentals are restored.

In the meantime, the crackdown on Bitcoin which eventually extended to China’s dominant messaging app, WeChat, has been sending users to the encrypted services of Telegram which is banned in China. It is suggested that many crypto-related trades, without estimates, are now being conducted on Telegram especially with the use of free Bitcoin Telegram Bot/Service which allows for easy creation of wallets.