China's First Bitcoin Exchange Acquired by Hong Kong Investors

China’s first Bitcoin exchange said it has been acquired a by unnamed Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund after a regulatory crackdown by Chinese officials.

Bobby LeePhotographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg
BTCC, which was known as BTC China when it was founded in 2011 and run by American Bobby Lee, was purchased for undisclosed terms. The company will now focus exclusively on the international market and its three major products, BTCC Pool, Mobi and USD Exchange, which will be led by Denver Zhao, Mark Ma and Aaron Choi, respectively.

“We now have the resources to more fully realize our vision of safeguarding and stabilizing digital currencies’ blockchains,” said Zhao, BTCC’s senior vice president of BTCC Mining Pool, according to a statement. “Going forward, we’ll provide better, fairer, more transparent, and more comprehensive mining services to our customers worldwide.”

Earlier this month, China escalated its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading. Officials plan to to block domestic access to local and offshore platforms that enable centralized trading, unidentified people told Bloomberg. China began its clampdown on the market last year by banning initial coin offerings first, and then calling on local exchanges to stop trading in cryptocurrencies.

“Today’s acquisition is an incredible milestone for BTCC that validates all of our hard work over the past few years,” Lee said in a post on Twitter. “I’m excited about the resources this gives BTCC to move faster and aggressively grow our businesses in 2018 and beyond!”