Affected by the ban of the Peoples Bank of China in September last year, OTC Over The Counter market (OTC·Over The Counter market) was once on the rise.Reuters
according toReutersAbout 20 over-the-counter traders, such as wealthy investors, bitcoin miners, payment processors and, increasingly, hedge funds, have traded in the billions of dollars a month, reports April 3.
They avoid exchanges, strike deals with people via Microsofts instant messaging platform Skype, and complete over-the-counter transactions through bank transfers and digital currency wallet transfers. It is reported that the transaction volume of such over-the-counter traders has increased by 10 times, and now they often process more than 100 million US dollars in transactions every day.
Coincidentally, according to the latest data from LocalBitcoins, the over-the-counter bitcoin trading platform with the widest coverage, the bitcoin trading volume on the platform also rebounded to 75 million US dollars in the last week of March this year, and the Canadian and European markets hit record highs. Vietnam, Mexico, Tanzania, Peru, and Venezuela also saw bitcoin trading volumes rise to new highs.
can be seen,Regardless of the C2C or B2C model, over-the-counter transactions, this highly anonymous and untraceable private transaction method outside the normal trading platform is attracting many investors.
This isnt the first time over-the-counter trading has received attention. Previously, Chinese regulators tightened the digital currency trading policy, which also triggered a small peak in the number of over-the-counter transactions.
In addition to policy reasons, some large order customers are more willing to choose such simple and fast trading methods to avoid excessive price fluctuations due to concerns about price fluctuations in the open trading market due to excessive one-time transaction volume. resulting loss of profit.
The reason behind the resurgence of OTC transactions this time may be that the recent hacker attacks on large exchanges have reduced trading confidence, and the instant messaging software that has successively entered the digital trading market has provided more channels for OTC transactions。
The probability of major global exchanges being hacked is increasing. In January this year, the Japanese exchange CoinCheck was hacked, and a total of 526 million XEM (about 400 million U.S. dollars) was stolen, making it the largest digital currency theft in history; on March 8, Binance was also attacked by hackers, and many netizens reported that the coins they held were sold. Previously, major cryptocurrency exchanges Bithumb, Youbit, Bitfinex and OKEx have also been hacked.
When the exchange fell into a security risk, the instant messaging software on the other side is also ready to move, intending to share the digital currency trading market.On January 10, the instant messaging giant LINE registered LINE Financial Company to provide financial services including digital currency transactions. In March this year, Kakao launched a blockchain unit, intending to increase its digital currency transaction industry. Many instant messaging software that enter the blockchain, such as telegram and beechat, not only focus on encrypted communication, but also provide the function of digital asset wallet.
But it is worth noting that although the OTC business is growing, it is still facing the problem of lack of clear rules and lack of supervision, for over-the-counter trading platforms that lack KYC (Know your customer, fully understand your customer) policies, their decentralized concealment and untraceability are also becoming a high-risk hotbed.
Over-the-counter traders are also looking to work with regulators to promote greater transparency in the developing market, Reuters reported.
