OKCoin: Bitcoin is gaining attention again amid economic turmoil

Coindesk recently released its latest quarterly Bitcoin report, which focuses on events in the cryptocurrency world in the second quarter of 2015. The report takes a comprehensive look at Bitcoin, with no more than 100 slides in total.

In its short history as a currency, Bitcoin has made its name in the media, becoming a popular choice for speculators due to its fantastic rise and fall. However, despite the media hype, Bitcoin's huge volatility has limited its use as an everyday currency. However, as Bitcoin's volatility has gradually disappeared over the past few months, its price peaks have gradually flattened.

The report pointed out that the price of Bitcoin showed a recovery in the second quarter report, mainly due to macroeconomic and financial problems in Greece and China.

As for Greece, to a certain extent, the country’s interest in Bitcoin is indeed growing, but the impact of this Greek crisis on Bitcoin comes more from observers than from the Greeks themselves.

In 2015, many large financial institutions have been studying Bitcoin and related technologies. For example, Nasdaq announced a blockchain-based solution for managing private trading shares. Previously, such transactions were completed by Nasdaq through cumbersome manual procedures.

Citibank is also developing its own digital currency, and ING Bank has also clarified its position that it does not hinder users from trading Bitcoin. In addition, seven banks from all over the world have established partnerships with Ripple Laps (San Francisco digital payment company), including three of the four largest banks in Australia. According to a recent report released by the European Banking Association (EBA), the reason why blockchain technology is so popular among traditional financial services companies is mainly due to its ability to reduce costs and improve transaction efficiency.

In general, the blockchain era is coming, and as a technology platform, it is emerging from the shadow of Bitcoin's monetary attributes.

Bitcoin remains strong in terms of VC investment, but concerns have begun to emerge. The report pointed out that the total venture capital in the digital currency field increased by 21%, totaling $832 million. In this quarter, the two largest rounds of financing came from Circle's $50 million and Ripple Laps' $28 million. In addition, the collapse of Bitcoin startup Buttercoin (Google, which has deep pockets, is one of the company's investors) has also sounded the alarm for venture capitalists.

It’s worth noting that Bitcoin is often compared to the early days of the Internet. Both are rooted in fringe ideology, and both have the power to disrupt through distributed data networks, if you believe the hype. In terms of investment, Bitcoin startups are outperforming expectations—it’s estimated that $786 million will be invested in the Bitcoin industry by the end of this year (slide 38), compared to $639 million for Internet companies in 1996. This includes Bitcoin miner BitFury’s latest $20 million transaction in the third quarter, and inflation and other startup operating costs are accounted for. Last year, Bitcoin received $112 million more than Internet startups in 1995.

In this regard, Xu Mingxing, CEO of the world's most professional OKCoin Bitcoin trading platform, said: With the widespread attention caused by the Greek crisis and the attention of banks and governments to blockchain technology, the development of Bitcoin is booming. In the first half of 2015, the economic turmoil was quite serious, which just made Bitcoin successful. The increasing attention and high investment in Bitcoin are the best proof. OKCoin has been committed to the development of Bitcoin. Recently, OKCoin launched the WeChat command order function to better improve the Bitcoin trading system and enhance the user experience. We look forward to the situation of Bitcoin in the second half of 2015, and even more to the development of Bitcoin in the future. The development of Bitcoin requires everyone's joint efforts.