Chinese bitcoin exchanges OKCoin and Huobi issued concurrent statements announcing they will suspend CNY trading pairs on October 31. The statements did not explicitly mention suspension of all trading, leading to speculation that crypto-to-crypto trading will remain open.
As first reported by regional cryptocurrency news service cnLedger, all CNY trading pairs will be shut down on October 31. However, CNY deposits are suspended, effective immediately, preventing traders from profiting off of arbitrage. According to a rough translation of its statement, Huobi called the move “a new beginning” for the industry as it moves toward legal compliance:
In terms of business compliance, the coin network is doing everything we can to respond positively to the state’s supervision and cooperation to fulfill the obligations, and actively put forward and explore the regulatory recommendations and programs, its purpose is to effectively protect the interests of users, today we make Such a decision is not the end, but a new beginning, the industry is more healthy and more development of the beginning of compliance, coins will continue in the premise of compliance, for the user service.
OKCoin’s statement, which was published just minutes later, used virtually the same language, declaring that this will make the Chinese cryptocurrency industry “more healthy and more compliant”.
Significantly, neither statement appeared to declare that trading would cease, diverging from the closure notices issued by BTCC, ViaBTC, and Yunbi. Regional media source Caixin had reported that OKCoin and Huobi might receive favorable regulatory treatment due to their size and the fact that they had not listed any ICO tokens–which the PBoC has ruled are illegal–on their trading platforms.
Indeed, the statements appear to confirm that theory. Both included the following sentence, which suggests that regulators might allow cryptocurrency-to-cryptocurrency trading pairs to remain open, although this is by no means a certainty.
because the regulatory authorities did not declare [cryptocurrency] and digital assets itself is illegal, the coin network will actively explore and strive for, expect to continue to provide Chinese users with compliance digital asset services.
Nevertheless, the news that these two bitcoin exchanges might be allowed to continue some operations led to an immediate bitcoin price rally. After falling below $3,000 earlier in the day, the bitcoin price is now trading at about $3,550.