Three Bitcoin platforms suspend withdrawals due to anti-money laundering system upgrade

Beijing Business Daily (Reporter Yue Pinyu) On March 8, Huobi.com, BTCChina, and BiXing all announced that they would postpone the opening of Bitcoin withdrawal services. A month before that, the three platforms announced that they would suspend all Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawal services in order to upgrade their anti-money laundering systems.

As for the reason for the delay in the withdrawal business, Huobi.com stated in the announcement that according to the regulatory authorities' requirements that "Bitcoin trading platforms must not violate the country's anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management, payment settlement and other financial laws and regulations", Huobi.com has been developing and upgrading the system based on relevant policy details in the past month, and has drawn on global regulatory experience and discussed with industry peers to formulate industry standards. Once approved by the regulatory authorities, the withdrawal business can be resumed. Please pay attention to the official announcement of Huobi.com for the specific time.

Bitcoin China and CoinBank also stated that they will resume withdrawal services once they obtain approval from regulatory authorities.

Xiao Lei, chief researcher of Golden Wallet, said that the currency withdrawal business is related to the anti-money laundering issue, which is the most sensitive issue for supervision. It may not be possible to circumvent it at the system level at present. This requires more time to upgrade the system and negotiate solutions with regulators.

On February 9, the Beijing Branch of the People's Bank of China also issued an announcement that clearly required that Bitcoin trading platforms must not engage in financial businesses such as financing and currency lending in violation of regulations, must not participate in money laundering activities, must not violate national financial laws and regulations on anti-money laundering, foreign exchange management, payment and settlement, and must not violate national taxation and industrial and commercial advertising management laws and regulations.

It is worth mentioning that during this year's "Two Sessions", there were endless suggestions for the regulation of Bitcoin trading platforms. On March 6, Zhou Xuedong, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Business Management Department of the People's Bank of China, proposed that domestic Bitcoin trading platforms should be tolerated and not banned for the time being, leaving a period of observation, but in the short term, it is necessary to clarify the regulatory red line of Bitcoin trading platforms and strictly regulate them. In the long run, it is necessary to study and explore long-term regulatory mechanisms.

On March 7, Wo Weidong, Chairman of Shanghai Huiyin (Group) Co., Ltd., suggested in his speech at the "Two Sessions" that Bitcoin should be placed under the legal framework to promote its healthy development. He said that major countries in the world are actively exploring new things such as Bitcoin and blockchain, so they cannot be simply denied or abandoned. It is recommended to include Bitcoin in Internet financial supervision and formulate appropriate supervision strategies. Appropriate supervision strategies can truly stimulate, promote and lead innovation while controlling risks.

It is worth mentioning that due to the suspension of leverage and restrictions on withdrawals, the trading volume of Bitcoin trading platforms has dropped significantly, and the trading volume of major Chinese trading platforms has fallen to less than 1% of the original level. Does the extension of the withdrawal policy mean that the regulatory authorities will be more stringent in regulating Bitcoin trading platforms? "The supervision has not become stricter, but the withdrawal issue itself is too difficult." Xiao Lei said. Another industry analyst said that the extension of the Bitcoin withdrawal business may also be related to the current time point. It is unlikely that more stringent policies will be introduced in the future because the current policies are already strict enough.