One of the biggest bitcoin mining pools, ViaBTC, is to open a CNY/BTC exchange in around two months with a USD/BTC exchange to follow. The CNY exchange will be based in China and provide no margins or futures, but the USD exchange will be based offshore and will provide margins and futures as permitted by relevant regulations, according to Sara Ouyang, Chief Operating Officer at ViaBTC.
She further revealed to CCN:
From the company level, we want to expand our business in cryptocurrency industry and cover the entire industry chain in the long run for sustainable development. Mining and exchange are both very important foundation for the industry. We have done a not bad job in mining and we believe the market for exchanges is big enough for us to multiply our users if we can do a good job too.
Ouyang said the exchange intends to comply with all relevant regulations and, referring to PBoC specifically, the COO said that “there’s no specific policies yet but we will try to comply with the current requirements.
The announcement is made after the company raised around $200,000 in a Series A round led by Bitmain. Asked about the other investors, CCN was told that “besides Bitmain, there’s a couple of private investors who are not ready to reveal themselves now.”
Some, especially Bitcoin Core supporters, have accused ViaBTC of secretly being owned by Bitmain. Ouyang denied such allegations, stating “ViaBTC is not owned by Bitmain. They are just investing in our new (and promising) business. We are 100% independent in running our own company.” She further said:
“We want more people to know that we are looking further into the business. Financing from Bitmain or any other company in the future will help us grow even bigger. We’d like to try tapping all our potentials and see how much more we can do for the industry and community as well. We love Bitcoin and that’s why we have ViaBTC. As what we’ve been visioning, we do want to make the world a better place via Bitcoin.”
The bitcoin exchanges market appears competitive, but the industry is sorely lacking margins or futures in a regulated exchange. Coinbase’s GDAX recently announced they are to add such function, but only for very rich traders with millions of dollars. The other alternative is Bitfinex, but they were hacked out of $75 million, making it a somewhat risky proposition to traders.
There is BitMEX, which provides as much as 100x margins, but they are not regulated, their spread is considerable and their liquidity seems lacking. Then there is OKCoin’s offshore exchange which continues to provide 3x margins as well as 20x futures, but, again, they are unregulated.
CFTC has often been criticized in these pages for continuing to deny margins and futures for no good reason. We are still waiting for them to relax their requirements or speed up their process so that the market can properly function. Until then, new exchanges that provide margins or futures at a significant level can only improve the overall trading situation.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
