China Bitcoin exchanges to charge trading fees

The top three Chinese bitcoin exchanges BTCC, OKcoin, and Huobi will be charging trading fees on Tuesday. The announcement comes after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) began inspecting the exchanges and pledging new oversight. The most vocal company so far has been the BTCC exchange giving details to the public regularly.  

“BTCChina, our CNY exchange, will start charging fees for bitcoin and litecoin trading from 12:00 PM (noon) UTC+8, Tuesday, January 24th,” explains BTCC during the recent trading fees announcement. “Market makers and takers will both be charged a flat fee of 0.2 percent per transaction. We are implementing fee-based trading to curb market manipulation and extreme volatility.”

Many Bitcoin community members are wondering how these new policies will affect the Chinese trading market. The new rules have a stark contrast to the years when Chinese exchanges operated with no trading fees and significantly sized margin lending practices. 

The absence of trading fees has encouraged volumes and boosted demand at Chinese bitcoin exchanges. The New York Times, citing data by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, reported in late June that 42% of all bitcoin transactions took place on Chinese exchanges in the first half of the year.

While BTCC’s newly implemented fees are pretty low, a lot of people are welcoming these new changes to the Chinese Bitcoin markets. One commenter on Reddit declares, “We are now witnessing a historic moment in Bitcoin, the end of the China casino era.”