Yahoo Finance Bitcoin bugs invest $10m in China's largest exchange
Despite China's recent crackdown, cyptocurrency Bitcoin has been given a new lease of life in the world's second largest economy.
The company that claims to be China's largest Bitcoin exchange by volume has announced a $10m Series A funding round. Venture Capital firm Ceyuan led the way and was followed by Mandra Capital, Ventures Lab and a string of other Angel investors.
This amounts to one of the largest cases of Bitcoin financing so far. Recently OKCoin became China's first virtual currency trading platform.
Founder and partner at Ceyuan, Feng Bo, commented:
We are delighted to invest in the pioneer of China’s Bitcoin exchanges; given the company’s leadership under Star Xu and his team, we know there is much more good news ahead.
The investment in the exchange will be used to expand the team, increase security and product research.
Last year, Chinese authorities instructed all third party payment companies to stop offering clearing services to Bitcoin exchanges by 31 January.
In December, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced a ban on financial institutions handling Bitcoin transactions. The central bank declared that Bitcoin was a currency without “real meaning.” The move came shortly after China became the world's largest trader of the virtual currency.
Soon afterwards, China's largest e-commerce business, Alibaba Group Holding, announced it would prohibit the sale of Bitcoin in the wake of the PBOC's crackdown.
However, the ban does not just extend to Bitcoin's themselves, but all manuals and computer software related to the mining of Bitcoin.
Alibaba's payment affiliate Alipay has not accepted Bitcoin payments in the past, and It is not the only third party payment provider that has refused to accept Bitcoin. E-payment service Yeepay announced last year that it would no longer provide payment services to what was once China's largest Bitcoin exchange, BTC China.
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