Cryptocurrency Exchange OKEx to Withdraw from Chinese Mainland Market

After Binance announced its withdrawal from the Mainland of China, OKEx announced on Wednesday that it had shifted its core business to international markets since 2017 and stopped promoting and providing services to the mainland China market.

OKEx stressed that it will continue “withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market”, and will not set up offices and teams in the Chinese mainland. At present, the company has established offices in many major countries around the world, with more than 1,000 overseas employees.

Also on Wednesday, Binance, one of the world’s largest exchanges by trading volume, said it will remove the Chinese yuan from its consumer-to-consumer platform on December 31 this year, and mainland Chinese users will have their accounts switched to “withdraw only mode”. Users will only be able to withdraw cash, cancel orders, redeem and close positions.

Binance also added that it had withdrawn from the Chinese mainland market in 2017 and did not engage in the exchange business in the Chinese mainland and was strictly complying with regulatory requirements.

After 2017, the domestic virtual currency circle once regarded Huobi, Binance and OKEx as the three strongest cryptocurrency trading platforms with huge transaction volumes and the largest market share in the world. However, as of October 13, 2021, all three exchanges have announced their withdrawal from the Chinese mainland market.

China’s regulators intensified a crackdown on cryptocurrencies last month with a blanket ban on all crypto transactions and mining, causing crypto exchanges and service providers to sever business ties with mainland Chinese clients.

SEE ALSO: Over 20 Virtual Currency Companies Withdraw from Chinese Market Following Strict Regulations

Crytocurrency trading platforms like BiONE, BHEX have been shut down, KuCoin, MEXC, AEX and CoinEx have announced that they will retire existing users in the Chinese mainland before the end of the year. In addition, Ethereum mining pool Sparkpool, mining machine manufacturer Bitmain, cryptocurrency wallet TokenPocket and cryptocurrency wealth management platform Matrixport have also indicated that they will restrict users in the Chinese mainland from using their services.