Wednesday afternoon Shanghai, BTCC just released a latest announcement, tightening regulations even more by halting real-name verification of all new users till 15th March, one month from now. However, the announcement was soon deleted. But 8btc managed to get a screenshot.



Conspiracy theory assumes that decision must be linked to seasonal Bitcoin futures contract “BTC0331”, which will be settled on 15th March. One may expect huge fluctuation that day.

Ironically, the same date is also the “Consumer’s Day” in China. CCTV will host an evening show on that day to exposes industrial secrets, usually the dark side. The show has become so popular that the stock price of company involved usually suffer great hit the next day. Previously international companies like MacDonald have to spend lots of efforts restoring faith among customers. Some companies failed to recover their reputation may eventually chose to shut down. PR companies are dying to keep any scandals related to their customers from being disclosed. However, once the program is in air, company will sure to be the trending topic on weibo.

The BTCC statement was a wet blanket to the optimistic interpretation of CCTV’s review last night. Although the comments are mostly linked to a money laundry case, it’s still viewed as a good news as CCTV being the most influential media in China. Jiang Zhuo’er claims that the CCTV programme is signalling giving legal status to bitcoin. However,Jack Liao, founder of Lighting Asic, think differently:

Are you kidding? The perfect storm of regulation just came into being. Before there is an effective way of separating legal users from illegal ones and a way for cutting off cross-border transaction, the big daddy will be always watching.

Among the “Big Three” Bitcoin exchanges, BTCC now display the lowest ask price. However, OTC trade is said to enjoy 4-10% premium over the exchange price. So far no further move is detected from OKCoin and Huobi. However, the clock is ticking and suspense builds up in the community.

update: 17:46pm 15th Feb, BTCC released the revised version and “halting verification of new users” was removed.