Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges Open Again For Withdrawals

Bitcoin rallied today after large China-based cryptocurrency exchanges announced they would resume withdrawals. The digital currency peaked at $2,407, a 4.1 percent increase from yesterday.

To prevent a price crash, Chinese bitcoin exchanges are cautiously limiting withdrawals. Huobi, one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to end the freeze, enforced new thresholds at 50 coins per transaction with a limit of 50 transactions per day. The business is also limiting transactions related to ethereum and litecoin.

BTC China and OKCoin are reportedly testing withdrawals, according to Bloomberg. The latter exchange is responsible for over 31 percent of trades in the Chinese bitcoin market.

The three-month hiatus, which was announced during a meeting between the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and local bitcoin exchanges, caused the price of the digital currency to fall by 8 percent in February.

The choice to resume withdrawals suggest PBoC inspections surrounding altcoin trading could finally be over. Analysts carrying out inspections found inconsistencies with the way local exchanges enforced anti-laundering measures.

“Bitcoin’s relative anonymity prompted some industry observers to say it had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals could buy each year,” said John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh from Reuters.

Furthermore, the Chinese institution found some exchanges engaging in fiat-to-bitcoin lending, which is considered illegal in the country. PBoC previously warned exchanges about overstepping regulations related to settlements, foreign exchange transactions and digital payments.

Today’s price surge marks the second largest increase in the last two weeks. The largest increase took place roughly a week before, reaching a record high of $2,798.98.

Analysts expect the completion of PBoC’s regulatory framework of bitcoin to be completed this month. The release of the framework will probably help stabilize the price of the digital currency.