The three major domestic Bitcoin trading platforms jointly announced that they will start charging transaction service fees from January 24

After encountering strong regulation, the three major domestic Bitcoin trading platforms introduced new trading measures. On the evening of January 22, many Bitcoin investors received a pop-up reminder from the trading platform they used, saying that Bitcoin trading service fees will be charged from January 24.

Huobi, Okcoin and BTC China have each announced on their official websites that in order to further curb speculation and prevent sharp price fluctuations, they will start charging transaction service fees for Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions from 12:00 on January 24, 2017. The specific adjustments are as follows: transaction service fees are charged in both directions at a fixed ratio, with RMB charged for selling and Bitcoin or Litecoin charged for buying; the fee rates for active and passive transactions are the same; the service fee is charged at a fixed rate of 0.2% of the transaction amount.

According to a reporter from Interface News, the above three Bitcoin trading platforms all issued announcements to users on the evening of the 22nd, and the implementation time and adjustment details of charging service fees were consistent. Previously, they did not charge transaction fees.

Earlier this month, the heads of the three major domestic bitcoin trading platforms were interviewed by the regulatory authorities in Shanghai and Beijing. On January 11, a joint investigation team led by the central bank entered the site for inspection. Jiemian News reported that the central bank's inspection results after entering the three bitcoin trading platforms were that these bitcoin trading platforms were initially found to have illegally carried out margin trading and securities lending businesses, resulting in abnormal market fluctuations.

Interface News reporters also learned that the three major platforms are no longer issuing new financing and currency loans, and will not force users who have previously received financing and currency loans to repay, and will wait for users to actively repay the corresponding amount.

On January 20, Bitcoin China issued an announcement stating that “in order to further curb speculative behavior and prevent drastic price fluctuations, in addition to the ‘deleveraging’ that has been implemented, it is referring to the operational experience of foreign peers and studying the collection of transaction fees, and will announce the latest progress in due course.” An investor of the above-mentioned platform told Interface News that this was seen by investors as a “forecast” of the new transaction fee regulations to be implemented on January 24, so they were “mentally prepared.”

According to the public information on the websites of various trading platforms, the trading volume of the above three platforms has dropped significantly compared with the trading volume when the price of Bitcoin soared to around 8,000 yuan in early January. Taking Huobi as an example, the maximum daily average Bitcoin trading volume in January was more than 4 million pieces, and the current daily average is less than one-tenth of the highest daily volume, fluctuating between 200,000 and 400,000 pieces.