It looks like the withdrawal suspension by China authority accidentally decentralize BTC trading and helps the OTC trading price set 20,000 CNY ATH on Bitkan, the Shenzhen-based startup offers built-in OTC feature in its mobile app. Wang Fuzhong, a well-known financial analyst, may be one of their registered users. Wang has around 1 million followers on weibo, the twitter counterpart in China. He released a weibo claiming to have bought “several” BTC, which stirred up a mixed feeling among his followers.

“Bitcoin has had a trading price since August 2010 and has risen 2.86 million times so far. Yes, you are reading me right! It has achieved 300% rise in one year and 60% in one month. Those who were trash-talking BTC should be in deep regret now. And yes, I have bought a few coins.”

Since BTC withdrawal is not available on domestic exchanges, he could only lay hands on BTC through OTC trade. Bitkan’s OTC trading chart indicates that the price has set a new record at 20,107 yuan on 25th May. The number opens an unread chapter in the history of Bitcoin.

Price Chart on Bitkan OTC Market(May 2016-May 2017)

Bitcoin exchanges in China were ordered to suspend withdrawal processing since 9th Feb,2017. The index was stalling for about two month since then. However, ATH (all-time-high) has been refreshed almost every day since May. It’s not possible without the liquidity injection from OTC traders.

Daria Petrova, Marketing Manager of Bitkan, said:

“We want to emphasize that since BTC withdrawal is forbidden in Chinese spot trading, OTC（over-the-counter) trading is very active in China. Amount of our users grew up in about 10 times for the last 3 months. The price is continuously increasing.”

BitKan has launched its OTC exchange module a year ago. The first deal has been made by ￥3002.32 CNY on 7th May, 2016. The OTC trading feature has attracted many new users since then.

New user acquisition on Bitkan (March 2017 — May 2017)

China’s bitcoin exchanges are expected to finish compliance rectification by this June and Bitcoin withdrawal is expected to be processed by then.

As a direct rival to existing exchanges, how is this going to impact the OTC market?

We believe that that a proper regulatory policy will be released and OTC price will be adjusted according to exchange and reach equilibrium eventually.

Daria added. So far, there are around 500 professional traders and over 50,000 users engaged in OTC transactions so far on Bitkan OTC market.