China’s biggest Bitcoin exchange BTCC has announced it will halt cryptocurrency withdrawals until March 15 as it moves to comply with regulatory standards.
In line with other major Chinese exchanges such as Huobi and Okcoin, BTCC is working on what it describes as “upgrading its inspection and verification system.”
It promised that withdrawals would immediately resume once the process had completed and that users would be informed. Withdrawals in yuan remain unaffected.
A circular sent to users Wednesday reads:
“BTCChina will continue upgrading its inspection and verification system for Bitcoin and litecoin withdrawals to aggressively guard against money laundering, illegal money exchange, pyramid schemes and other illegal activity.”
The People’s Bank of China issued warnings to Bitcoin exchanges after inspections found areas of regulatory compliance it wished to address.
Traders then flocked to alternative platforms such as LocalBitcoins after major exchanges implemented trading fees and subsequently withdrawal embargoes.
Concerns were raised that LocalBitcoins could also come under the PBoC’s suspicion and that the exchange BitKan was already preparing to alter its operations. In comments sent to Cointelegraph, however, BitKan stated that the PBoC had not even been in contact.