With the loosening of regulation, China's Bitcoin trading platform quietly restarts online banking top-up

With the recent surge in the Bitcoin market, domestic Bitcoin platforms have become active again. One and a half years after the relevant ban was issued and Bitcoin experienced a surge in prices, Bitcoin trading platforms that had avoided the limelight have begun to restart bank online banking recharges.

On November 2, Bitcoin trading platform Bitcoin China (BTCC) announced that it would enable online banking recharge and abandon the original recharge code recharge method. "After a period of testing by the relevant departments of BTCC, the new recharge method has been launched."
“Users only need to go to the recharge interface, select the remittance bank through online banking, fill in the form information as required and complete the remittance, wait a moment, and your remittance funds will be recharged to your account on the BTCC platform in a short time without contacting customer service,” the above announcement stated.

The Paper learned that before BTCC, major Bitcoin trading platforms had already restarted this online banking recharge method, including OKCoin and Huobi. In this regard, a bank official consulted by The Paper said that it is difficult to regulate Bitcoin platforms that remit money through bank channels.

Previously, after the regulatory halt, most Bitcoin platforms used the recharge code method, that is, users transferred money to the platform agent, obtained the recharge code, and used the recharge code to recharge.

"Before the central bank's talks, most Bitcoin trading platforms opened accounts in multiple banks. After closing a corporate account, they could transfer the money to other banks, or transfer money in the name of another registered company, or even to a personal account. Banks can only do what they can to 'close one account once discovered' for risk screening of accounts involved in transactions, but it is indeed difficult for individuals to monitor online banking transfers to companies, especially personal accounts." A person from the electronic banking department of a joint-stock bank told The Paper.

In December 2013, due to the serious speculation in Bitcoin, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks". The "Notice" requires all financial institutions and payment institutions not to buy and sell Bitcoin, and not to directly or indirectly provide customers with other Bitcoin-related services, including Bitcoin registration, trading, clearing, settlement and other services.

In March of the following year, the central bank again issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Bitcoin Risk Prevention Work", requiring banks and third-party payment institutions to close all trading accounts of more than a dozen domestic Bitcoin platforms before April 15.

On April 24 of that year, the central bank again interviewed several institutions. At that time, mainstream banks including the five state-owned banks and joint-stock banks successively released almost identical "Statements on Prohibition of Using Our Bank Accounts for Bitcoin Transactions" on their official websites. In the statements, the banks emphasized that from that day on, no institution or individual may use bank accounts for activities such as recharging and withdrawing transaction funds for Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc., purchasing and selling related transaction recharge codes, and may not transfer related transaction funds through bank accounts. Once discovered, the bank has the right to take measures such as suspending transactions in related accounts and canceling accounts.

However, The Paper has learned that the use of bank channels for recharge and withdrawal has never been completely blocked. After being interviewed, some Bitcoin platforms did receive notices from relevant bank branches that Bitcoin-related business settlement services were suspended; for this reason, all platforms stopped bank recharges and switched to recharge codes. However, this policy was not always strictly enforced, and later the bank channels were gradually restored, but the time of restoration was different for each platform.

An insider of Huobi.com told the reporter from The Paper that “the bank and the platform did have communication and negotiations in April last year, but since then the bank has still been able to both recharge and withdraw cash.” “Our platform has always been able to use online banking for recharge. At that time, the central bank mainly banned third-party payment channels. The bank’s own recharge and remittance interface was not stopped, and it was difficult to stop it. (Disabling bank channels) is a difficult thing to implement no matter how logically you look at it.” The above-mentioned Huobi.com person said that his understanding is that the central bank’s document did not say that Bitcoin is illegal, but only said that Bitcoin transactions are a kind of commodity buying and selling behavior on the Internet, and ordinary people have the freedom to participate on the premise of assuming their own risks.

Another trading platform, OKcoin, also confirmed that the online banking recharge channel had been cut off, but it has been restored to normal use for some time. BTCC’s customer service staff said that the platform resumed using online banking to recharge Bitcoin two weeks ago.

Not only have online banking channels been gradually lifted, but even the most strictly regulated third-party payment platforms have also shown signs of loosening. The reporter noticed that the Alipay recharge interface has been restored on the recharge pages of BTCC and Huobi.com. However, although the Alipay channel has been added to the page, the above-mentioned Huobi.com personnel denied that recharge is possible, saying, "According to regulations, we cannot use Alipay to recharge, and we cannot recharge now."