14 DAY TRIAL // Bitcoins will become a regulated currency in the near future, believes Bobby Lee, CEO and co-founder of China’s biggest bitcoin exchange BTCC.
According to Business Insider, Lee thinks it is only a matter of time before this happens, not a matter of “if.” “The answer is, I do not know when it will happen but I know it will happen. I have confidence of that because fundamentally I think Bitcoin exchanges need to be regulated,” he told the publication.
This, of course, isn’t exactly a surprise considering the fact that the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has launched an investigation into Lee’s platform, as well as other similar exchanges.
A few days ago, BTCC, alongside Huboi and OKCoin, the largest bitcoin exchanges in China, introduced transaction fees for those trading on their platforms. Although there were rumors that this was actually the People’s Bank of China pushing for new, behind-the-scenes regulations, Lee says these allegations are untrue and that they simply decided to do something that they knew authorities would force them to do eventually.
Price bubble?
The popularity of bitcoins has had its ups and downs over the years, but in China, it has mostly been on an upward scale. In fact, nowadays, it accounts for about 99% of all trade-in cryptocurrency. The huge spikes in bitcoin prices at the end of last year are what pushed the People’s Bank of China to start its investigation. What the bank wants to do is make sure investors do not get hurt if the prices going up is just a bubble and BTCC’s Lee does not sound surprised at all about the extra scrutiny.
It is a fact, however, that the extreme scrutiny on the Chinese market has helped push down the price again, lowering below the $1,000 it was at the end of the year and more towards $900 per coin. Lee believes that by adding these new trading fees, the market will calm down and the trading volumes will go down to allow a healthier exchange market for bitcoins where investors do not suffer great losses because they decided to take a nap.