OKCoin and CHBTC report some bank accounts closed

China’s rumored April 15th “bitcoin ban” may not have materialized, but that doesn’t mean things have stabilized for the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges. Earlier today, major Chinese exchanges OKCoin reported that its accounts at the China Construction Bank had been closed, while the owner of smaller exchange CHBTC had his personal account (which had been serving as a business account) with the Bank of China Beijing closed. Although inconvenient for the exchanges, these account closures seem to be happening on the individual branch level, rather than as an issue of national policy.

In both cases, the exchanges were informed by phone about the account closures. In OKCoin’s case, the decision only impacts deposits made from their China Construction Bank account. The bank branch changed its policy on working with bitcoin-related businesses, but did not do because of actions or policies from the People’s Bank of China. The exchange has other accounts, and said that no other services were impacted.

CHBTC’s situation appears to be similar, with the Bank of China Beijing’s Baijiazhuang branch strongly encouraging the exchange to close its account after learning the nature of their business. CHBTC also noted that they had received no similar requests from their other banking partners, and were already prepared for the possibility of a country-wide ban on bitcoin businesses in the banking system.

Other exchanges, such as Huobi and BTC China, have not reported any account closures.