The move can be rather eventful for the cryptocurrency ecosystem especially if followed by other large Chinese exchanges.
Huobi, one of the largest Chinese exchanges, made a huge step ahead to bring more liquidity to the cryptocurrency market. Yesterday, the exchange announced that it will start Ethereum trading on its platform on the last day of May.
BREAKING: Huobi to list ETH trading today!https://t.co/UWlu7tWwHx
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) May 27, 2017
It is big news for the Ethereum ecosystem. The question remains if other leading Chinese exchanges will follow.
.@huobicom is one of the biggest bitcoin exchanges in China. When will the other two of the "Big Three" @OKCoin & @YourBTCC make the move?
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) May 27, 2017
Traditionally, Chinese exchanges have been focusing on Bitcoin only neglecting Ethereum, which was rather odd. Now, the announcement from Huobi has all chances to change the situation for the better.
The fact that Huobi will start Ethereum trading can be rather eventful for the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem. As Chinese exchange generate a lot of volume on a daily basis, it is likely that the demand for ETH will increase. As for now, the price makes up $170. Experts do not expect a massive price increase although the availability of direct trading market against the Yuan is always a good idea.
It is nice to see that Huobi has made a brave move. The decision of Chinese government to halt withdrawals has led to Chinese exchanges losing some of their appeal. As a result, both Japanese and Korean trading platforms outperformed China in trading volume.
Now, experts wonder of Huobi will enable ETH withdrawal or just provide an option to buy Ethereum.
The example of Huobi can be rather inspiring for other large Chinese exchanges such as BTCC and OKCoin. As a matter of fact, BTCC has already confirmed it will start Ethereum Classic trading soon. There is still some “bad blood” between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, the original blockchain without the contentious DAO bailout fork. The former is the ecosystem with the most media attention and a growing number of use cases. It will be interesting to see how both ecosystems will evolve over time.
Earlier this month, People’s Bank of China unveiled that it is developing new regulations on bitcoin trading and local digital currency exchanges that will be implemented by June. Until then, on-site inspections on the country’s three largest bitcoin exchanges OKCoin, BTCChina, and Huobi will likely continue. The inspections can result in administrative punishment for the exchanges. They will likely have to pay fines for their previous operations that may have violated existing financial regulations in China.
If Chinese authorities implement new regulatory frameworks, it may surge bitcoin demand in China and therefore bitcoin price listed by the Chinese bitcoin exchange market is likely to increase. As for now, bitcoin is traded at $2,168, according to the CoinMarketCap.
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