BTCChina Announces Exit from China’s Bitcoin Exchange Market

One of the largest exchanges in China is voluntarily closing its operations. BTCChina announced on September 14 that it will stop all trading on September 30 as regulators are reportedly planning to stop fiat to bitcoin trades in the country. BTC-USD has suffered another sharp drop, hitting a fresh low at $3426.92, with the price regaining the $3500 handle at the time of writing.

1/ After carefully considering the announcement published by Chinese regulators on 09/04, BTCChina Exchange will stop all trading on 09/30. — BTCC (@YourBTCC) September 14, 2017

BTCChina previously listed ICO-coin, a token for the specific purpose of raising funds for ICO projects, and China’s recent move to ban initial coin offerings may play a part.

New registrations for the exchange will be halted on September 14. Other large exchanges operating in China, such as OKCoin and Huobi, have stated they had received no notice from regulators and are operating as normal.

3/ OKCoin and Huobi PR said they have not received notice from regulators and are operating normally — cnLedger (@cnLedger) September 14, 2017

Will decentralized exchanges become popular as the rumors continue to circulate? BitShares used the opportunity of BTCChina’s announcement to remind people of their solution to the seemingly imminent clampdown on bitcoin exchanges.

Good job we built a permissionless fully decentralized exchange running on a blockchain. China can continue to trade #DEX #Bitshares #BitCNY — BitShares (@bitshares) September 14, 2017

There are also concerns that these statements are part of market manipulation. For the past week or so, a flurry of announcements have swirled the cybersphere but with no official confirmation, it is suspected that certain individuals are using their influence to intentionally cause panic and drive the price of bitcoin down. However, by bringing the information to the market when it is available, it could be argued that it reduces the scope for insider trading or market manipulation.

Short-term Outlook for the Price of Bitcoin

The chart below shows that BTC-USD dropped to a fresh low of $3470.00 on the Bitstamp exchange. The five-minute chart also shows the most recent fractal levels at $3616.33 and $3480.00.

Notice that the price action has returned into the Alligator indicator and the Alligator has stopped trending lower, as the downward trend takes a pause. Now, the Alligator is said to be ‘asleep’ and we await the next move. The Awesome Oscillator has turned positive, also suggesting that sellers have become exhausted.

We look to buy on a break of $3616.33 with the market likely to test resistance at $3776.64 and the fractal sell level at $3895.00. However, a move below $3480.00 will reignite the bearish momentum and see a test of the support at $3404.95.