News

One more Bitcoin ATM; one less Bitcoin exchange

April 17, 2014

This week, BTC China installed China's first Bitcoin ATM in Shanghai. Meanwhile, across the China Sea, a bankruptcy court nixed a corporate reorganization request by the Mt. Gox exchange, all but assuring the liquidation of the onetime Leviathan.  

According to USA Today, the appointed administrator in the Mt. Gox proceedings said that a reorganization would be simply too "difficult for the company to carry out."

Pursuant to the bankruptcy case, the court said it will launch an investigation into the possible liability of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles for the disappearance of 650,000 Bitcoins representing more than $450 million in customer-owned funds.

Back in Shanghai, BTC China is threading the regulatory needle of China's recent Bitcoin crackdown, judging by a report from Reuters.

In December, the Peoples Bank of China forbid banks to trade in Bitcoin. With exchanges no longer allowed to operate within FI networks, transactions became almost impossible.

So BTC China came up with an end-around — a mobile app that allows people to trade Bitcoin peer-to-peer without an exchange or bank as intermediary. They can also add to their Bitcoin stash banklessly by using the Bitcoin ATM in Shanghai, which accepts, but does not dispense Bitcoin.