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Major Chinese Exchange CHBTC CEO: Chinese Government Giving Positive Signals with Digital Currencies

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM
Andrew Quentson
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:50 PM

In an extended interview with CCN.com to be published shortly, Dawei Lee, Chief Executive of CHBTC, China’s biggest ETH and ETC trading exchange and fourth by volume for BTC, stated:

Recently the government in China has been giving positive signals in regards to digital currency and blockchain technology. Positive announcements from the Cyber security bureau, the PBOC, and the media have instilled some confidence in the local digital currency industry.

In discussing the heightened focus on blockchain technology since the beginning of this year, Lee stated that major banks and giant tech companies such as Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei have shown an “increasing interest in Bitcoin and blockchain technology” which has led to a greater understanding of Bitcoin and Ethereum by the public with numerous local communities developing in major cities.

A recent report showed that China’s Fintech has now far passed the tipping point and is mainstream or on the verge of being mainstream with Ant Financial facilitating online payments for almost half a billion Chinese customers. Lee, however, states that Bitcoin currently doesn’t have a use case for domestic payments and is limited to cross-border payments:

Though we have the most advanced domestic payment system in the world, when we need to buy an online product from an international website or would like to transfer some funds internationally that is a pain point.

Speaking of the recent Bitfinex hack, Lee called for Chinese regulators to supervise exchanges, so as to provide the market the best service. As for CHBTC, it uses “strict procedures to secure our customer’s account and funds” and has a “healthy business model” says Lee, who, avoiding a direct answer to our question on whether Chinese exchanges fake volume stated that was a “common criticism” with the volume explained by the “zero fee trading model” and “rapid growth in our user base.”

Lee stated that the Chinese community was often not aware of what is happening in the west due to “the language barrier, culture differences and the great firewall,” but we are all united, Lee says by the “potential to change the world for the better with this revolutionary technology.”

Lee, however, whose exchange is in partnership with BW, one of the biggest ETH and BTC pools which held until the day of the fork to switch, does not seem to extend these views of a united community to Ethereum, criticizing them by arguing that the immutability of the often forked Ethereum chain is a “core value” and went so far as to say they recently announced their “intention to donate 50% of ETC trading fees to the development of Ethereum Classic.”

Lee’s very bullish attitude towards bitcoin is starkly contrasted with his reservations towards Ethereum which he considers “excellent at technological development” and outreach in China with “several communities in the major cities here focused on Ethereum as well as companies researching it,” but the DAO fork, which is already fainting in memory, has led to “disillusioned former strong supporters.”

He, however, emphasizes unity with his closing remarks equally applying between and within digital currencies which for the most part do not compete with each other since all of them combined are a tiny slice of the overall market:

Though we have significant challenges in communicating and sometimes the impression is given we are adversaries I hope to express that we are all in the same boat. From Asia, to the Americas, to Africa, to Oceania.

Image from Shutterstock.