China has become the world’s largest trading platform for Bitcoins. On Tuesday, the value of one single bitcoin hit a record-high of 900 US dollars at one point, before closing at 700 dollars. That’s 66 times higher than what it was worth in January. Fresh numbers show about 100,000 bitcoins are traded each day in China, half of the world’s share. Feng Xin explores the China frenzy.
With one bitcoin, you could probably buy an 80-yuan I-phone case this January. But now it’s worth the price of a latest i-phone 5S.
Chinese traders have quickly spotted the investment hot spot. The Chinese trading platform BTC China says its highest trading volume has exceeded 200 million yuan per day-- that’s 33 million US dollars. BTC China’s trading volume has surpassed other major platforms like Mt dot Gox and BitStamp to become the world’s largest bitcoin trading platform.
However, for individual traders, holding steady proves to be quite challenging. (TAKE GRAPHICS) A single bitcoin hit a high of nearly 6,000 yuan on Monday, which was 80 percent higher than Sunday. The value reached a new high to nearly 7,000 yuan on Tuesday but fell drastically to 4,000 yuan at one point and closed at just over 5,000 yuan.
"I think it would be hard for us to categorize bitcoins as a currency. In fact, bitcoins are traded as a type of stock futures, in other words, the more like a financial product than a currency. We all know the nature of financial products -- they are risky and uncontrollable." Said Ye Tan, Financial Commentator.
In spite of bitcoins’ unpredictability, the number of new registered users on BTC China rose to 10,000 on Monday from 4,000 last Saturday. Lawmakers across the world, especially in the United States, have been debating whether central banks should step in to regulate bitcoins. Chinese financial lawmaker Wu Xiaoling said at a recent forum that she believed central banks are responsible for regulating any institutions that are capable of producing a currency, including the Internet.
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