Chinese exchange Bter reinstates wire-transfer deposits

For the last several weeks, the bitcoin-related news coming from China has been filled with gloom and doom. With the new People’s Bank of China policies still unconfirmed, many Chinese exchanges have taken preemptive steps to ensure compliance before the rumored April 15 changes. One exchange, however, is simply returning to basics. Last night, Bter announced on its Twitter page that it was re-enabling direct bank wire transfers for deposits.

The move is not a huge surprise. Bter halted all deposits on late March citing the PBoC rumors, but other exchanges, such as BTC China, have reported no problems with the wire-transfer option. With recent statements from PBoC insiders hinting that China’s goal with their rumored bitcoin policy is largely a response to rampant speculation, rather than an attempt to “ban” virtual currencies outright, the relatively slow wire-transfers are likely to remain an open channel for investors.

It’s still unclear what impact the notoriously tight-lipped PBoC’s bitcoin policies will be, or even if the rumored policy change is real. To date, the sole source for the rumor is a single article published by Chinese financial news service Caixin. The PBoC has yet to confirm any of that article’s details, although the lack of a denial has caused many to assume that the details are correct. Third-party payment systems, which would be banned from working with bitcoin exchanges under the unconfirmed policy, were first warned to cease all such relationships in December 2013.