Bitcoin Trading Volume In Hong Kong Skyrockets To ATH As Protests Rage On
The political turmoil in Hong Kong continued to rally even on October 1st, the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. The protests continue even though the previous proposals for allowing extradition to mainland China were abandoned in June. Amid all this, Bitcoin trading volume on P2P platform LocalBitcoins surged to its all-time high over the past week.
Bitcoin’s Trading Volume Reaches All-Time High
The cryptocurrency boom of late 2017 and early 2018 delivered immense Bitcoin trading volume numbers in Hong Kong. As the market’s value decreased in the following months so did the volume. However, the weekly volume for BTC against the Hong Kong Dollar on LocalBitcoins shows that last week it hit a new all-time high. The recent volume of almost 12,300,000 surpassed the 2017/2018 boom.
Protesters in Hong Kong are attempting to get further independence from mainland China. Some people avoid using pre-paid Octopus cards, feeling monitored by the apps they use. Thus, Bitcoin emerges as an alternative because of its peer-to-peer nature. It’s also widely considered as an anonymous payment method, that’s not exactly the case. While there is no KYC, each transaction is coming and going to someone’s Bitcoin address. If that address is linked to a person, all transactions will be as well.
Hong Kong Situation
The 1st of October 2019 was supposed to be a day for celebration as it was the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. However, with over 20,000 active protestors in Hong Kong, the situation escalated quickly. Reports show that a young person was shot in the chest with a live bullet and a total of 269 arrests were made in a day.
The One Country, Two Systems way of operating mainland China and Hong Kong appears to be heading south. The latter has its own separate legal system and judiciary, however, its people are turning against mainland China. A recent cyberattack was launched from a network of computers in China aimed at a Telegram group used by protesters. Shortly after, the Hong Kong police arrested the administrator of another Telegram chat group consisting of over 20,000 members.
The protests in the country are taking a new trajectory towards the digital world. Technology is used as well by the authorities and the protesters as well. Blockchain appears to be the next step and the most recent Bitcoin trading volumes spikes in Hong Kong appear to be heading this way.
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