Major Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, BTCChina, announced today that its new KYC/AML verification system has been completed.
BTCChina, along with other major exchanged in the country, suspended withdrawals in February as regulators from the People's Bank of China reinforced the need for digital currency businesses to be in full compliance with all financial regulations.
According to today’s statement, clients will have to be in compliance with of BTCChina’s know-your-customers rules by submitting four identity documents: legal name, national ID number, bank card number, personal mobile number.
The new requirement apply to all clients who wish to perform deposits & withdrawals - even to existing clients who had accounts prior to the downtime. While fiat-based transactions are currently available with the proper verification, BTCChina said in its statement that Bitcoin/Litecoin withdrawals are still not active.
Similar rules are expected to be unveiled at other major trading venues like Huobi and OKCoin.
Bitcoin exchange domiciled in China were quick to bend to the demands from PBoC regulators, but the long-term effects on their bottom lines as a result of this debacle, which forced many investors to P2P marketplaces like LocalBitcoins, is difficult to gauge at this point.
Weekly trading activity emanating from China on LocalBitcoins remained mostly under 3 million CNY up until February of this year. However, following the closures of Huobi, OKCoin and BTCChina in mid-February, weekly volumes on LocalBitcoins in China began to increase very rapidly.
During the last week of February, 50 million CNY worth of Bitcoin changed hands on LocalBitcoins in China. And by the by the beginning of March, weekly volumes were hovering above 60 million CNY, according to charts by Coin.dance.
