Ethereum activities are rising in China, due to increasing interests in the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and the Ethereum network’s applicability to a wide range of infrastructures across various industries.

Chinese bitcoin exchanges have recognized a surge in interest and demand for Ethereum and as a result, several major bitcoin exchanges including OKCoin have announced the integration of support for Ethereum or Ether trading.

On March 31, nine days prior to releasing its newly updated Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) systems, OKCoin confirmed with CnLedger, a trusted cryptocurrency news source in China, that the exchange will introduce support for ETH trading in the near future.

CnLedger announced:

“Our source tells us OKCoin is now planning on listing Ethereum. “May list it at the appropriate time.” Confirmed by OKC customer service.”

Several users were skeptical towards the announcement of CnLedger as many sources previously confirmed that OKCoin was to introduce ETH support last year. However, CnLedger reaffirmed that it directly confirmed with representatives of OKCoin in regard to their integration of ETH support.

Once major exchanges including OKCoin begin to support ETH trading, the Chinese Ethereum industry will likely experience an exponential growth, similar to South Korea. Currently, the South Korean Ethereum exchange market is the second largest behind the US exchange market. The integration of ETH support by local Chinese exchanges is likely to result in a competition between the Ethereum markets between China and South Korea.

Moreover, CnLedger also confirmed that two Ethereum and Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) meetups will be held in China this month. The first meet up on April 24 will be held in Beijing and the second event will be held on April 26, in Shanghai.

EEA meetups are important discussion platforms for both Ethereum and Ethereum-utilizing corporations. In the Taiwan EEA meetup for instance, Vitalik Buterin encountered many multi-billion dollar companies including the $52.4 billion Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum company BHP Billiton that have been actively developing applications on top of the EEA framework for greater levels of transparency and security.

There exists many consortia in China that are actively investigating the potential of blockchain technology in conventional multi-trillion dollar industries. ChinaLedger for instance, the blockchain alliance led by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs, already released a white paper on its blockchain technology in January of this year.

The introduction of EEA in China will likely spur the interests of large-scale corporations and businesses, given the developmental framework of Ethereum which grants flexibility and functionality with features and technologies such as smart contracts.

Since consortia such as ChinaLedger are working with some of the largest organizations and influential regulators in the region, and the government of China itself is heavily involved in the development of blockchain, the country is a huge market for Ethereum and EEA to target.

With major trading platforms and meetups focusing on supporting Ethereum and leading discussions on the applicability of Ethereum network, the adoption of Ethereum within China is expected to increase significantly in the upcoming months.

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