Chinese bitcoin investors see holdings partly frozen Related topics Millions of bitcoin investors in China are seeing their assets partly frozen, as three major bitcoin trading platforms in the country have suspended “bitcoin withdrawal business”, as they respond to China’s central bank’s call to strengthen anti-money laundry functions.Huobi, OKCoin and BTC China issued announcements respectively in late Thursday, saying they would suspend the service of withdrawing bitcoin from the platforms.They all said the measures were introduced according to the central bank requirements.Conversion to and from the yuan is not affected and the curbs will be dropped after updates to compliance systems, the exchanges said.Zhao Dong, owner of Jiandong Tech, a company that buys and sells bitcoin, said the new rule meant investors would be unable to transfer their holding of bitcoins back to their own purses.“To cash out, investors could only sell the bitcoins for yuan, as yuan withdrawal is still feasible on the platform -- this is a huge weigh on the bitcoin prices,” he said.

On Wednesday, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) told nine smaller bitcoin venues at a meeting in Beijing that it would close exchanges that violate rules on foreign exchange management, money laundering, or payment and settlement.Bitcoin is trading at 6,691 yuan each on OKCoin at 2.10 pm.Speculation, derivative products, leveraged betting and program trading pushed up the price of bitcoin by more than 260 per cent since early 2016, to hit a historic high of 8,995 yuan on January 5, but a sudden price correction on the same day.business-article-page Most Popular Viewed 1 Hong Kong MTR: From metro network to global rail giant 2 Money buys Chinese tenants the cache of Central 3 Lo-family matriarch says she decided on lawsuit to dismiss HSBC 4 Guangzhou airport to edge out Hong Kong as dominant regional hub 5 Four hours to get to work in 1971, now takes 25 minutes on MTR Shared 1 Hong Kong MTR: From metro network to global rail giant 2 Lo-family matriarch says she decided on lawsuit to dismiss HSBC 3 Four hours to get to work in 1971, now takes 25 minutes on MTR 4 Money buys Chinese tenants the cache of Central 5 Guangzhou airport to edge out Hong Kong as dominant regional hub Commented

Buy bitcoins online in Thailand Seller Payment method Show more… Sell bitcoins online in Thailand Buyer Payment method Show more… Buy and Sell Bitcoins in these popular cities in Thailand City Trading Amountbitcoin sicher kaufenCoinTerra Takes Aim At Butterfly Labs With GSX I: A 400 GH/s PCI-E Bitcoin Mining Card News Bank Run In Thailand – Luckily Bitcoin Was Just Confirmed As Legal There [Local View Update] Gordon Hall Advertisement: The Bangkok Post today carries disturbing news out of Thailand: Deposit flight hits state-run bank Panicked by rumours of rice scheme lending, GSB customers are pulling out their money in droves.litecoin coinbaseThe Government Savings Bank (GSB) is a bank under the management of the Thai government since 1929, when it was known as the Savings Office.bitcoin order book depth

It has 930 branches across Thailand.Bank Run in Progress Accoding to the bank’s president, GSB customers have withdrawn 30 billion Baht (around 1612903 BTC or 1 billion USD) in a single day.litecoin worth 2017These mass withdrawals are due to fears that the Thai government has used their savings to back loans to struggling rice farmers.make money bitcoin nodeThailand is the world’s largest exporter of rice, but farmers there have not received yet 130 billion Baht in subsidies from the government.bitcoin telegraph(BAAC) Smaller Thai banks like Krungthai Bank (KTB) and the Bank for Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) have also seen major withdrawals, though not to the same extent as GSB.bitcoin trojan mac

Fractional Reserve Banking Under a fractional reserve system in which banks hold only a small percentage of deposits, bank runs are always a single headline away.bitcoin pool share chartAs this risk is never plainly stated to a customer opening an account, such a system can only be described as fraudulent.bitcoin live handelOrdinary Thai citizens are now learning about this widespread scam the hard way.In relation to this incident, a Thai citizen was reported to remark, “I started to feel concerned that my money may become only paper.” Alternatives to the fiat, fractional reserve system are however at hand.Traditional options for the preservation of wealth like gold, silver, gems and art are well-known.Thailand’s Bitcoin Exchanges For more adventurous and technologically-savvy Thais, the good news is that Bitcoin was recently confirmed as legal by their central bank, as we reported a few days.

Bitcoin is of course held by the individual, beyond the power of banks to withhold or central banks to inflate.Bitcoin.co.th is currently open for trading.That site carries plenty of detailed tutorials in the Thai language to get Bitcoin newcomers up and running.There is also a Thai cryptocurrency exchange group, ExchangerCoin, doing business over Facebook.As always, do your own due diligence on these exchanges before trading.Update: Local View CryptoCoinsNews has a team member on the ground in Thailand, Venzen.He offers the following explanation of the situation: Advertisement: Advertisement:I don’t know a topic that is more misunderstood than cryptocurrency.The confusion starts with entities coining (no pun intended!)umbrella terms to describe cryptocurrencies as being either digital or virtual.In many blogs, cryptocurrency, virtual, and digital currency are used interchangeable.For example, the Bangkok Post referred to “virtual currencies including the bitcoin”, while the Toronto Star described the collapse of a bitcoin exchange after hackers stole its “digital currency”.

an author illustrated the difference between cryptocurrencies and digital currencies while referring to their use in online virtual economies.US regulators unofficially coined the umbrella term “virtual currency” to denote bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies.First, it is debatable if cryptocurrency is a currency or property.In my Blog “Judge rules Bitcoin is not Money”.A Florida Judge dropped money laundering charges against a man saying that bitcoin wasn’t money but property.However, the purpose of this article isn’t to challenge cryptocurrency as a currency but to examine its use as a strategic vehicle for money laundering and terrorist financing.Crypto, digital, traditional and virtual currencies have different attributes and traits and knowing them are necessary for the assessment of the individual risk that each pose as a strategic vehicle for money laundering and terrorist financing.Before we look at their attributes and traits, let’s take a moment to view the perceived risks that these currencies pose.

The National Risk Assessment by the UK government, published in 2015, stated that digital currencies (that umbrella term again) presented the lowest risk as a vehicle for money laundering and terrorist financing.At that time, I was shocked by the UK government’s risk assessment as was many of the AML Knowledge Centre members.More surprising a half year later in early 2016, the semiannual risk survey published by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) stated that these currencies pose a higher risk!The survey mentioned that criminals are persistent in their use of virtual currencies (Umbrella term again) and the role that virtual currencies have in funding these criminal activities by providing anonymity for cyber criminals, including terrorists and other groups seeking to transfer and launder money globally.Likewise, the federal agency that oversees national banks in the US also has called virtual currencies an operational risk due to their perceived role in facilitating and enabling cybercrime.

No wonder we were all shocked by the results of the National Risk Assessment by the UK government.If you’re like me, without mentioning any names, my perception was largely influenced by inadequate editorial reporting and biased media coverage.After reading a recent article, I was under the impression that ISIS and organized crime syndicates were strategically using a shadow banking system (aka dark web) and cryptocurrencies to systematically launder tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars on a regular basis, while law enforcement watched helplessly.Are there individuals out there who will try to exploit cryptocurrencies to launder money or support some local terror cell?Definitely, but these individuals will try any and every means to accomplish this.Nevertheless, a more critical question that needs answering is how much of this is being conducted strategically by organized crime syndicates or ISIS verse pockets of individual (lone wolf) activity.For this reason, I thought it useful to briefly look at the fundamental working principles of each currency to determine their suitability as a strategic vehicle for money laundering and terrorist financing.

Also known as fiat money.Is issued, monitored and regulated by a centralized government.Traditional currency is used to purchase goods and services.When one speaks of anonymity, no other of the currencies offers more anonymity and economic stability for money laundering and terrorist financing than traditional currency…cash is still king for the time being.The digital form of traditional currency and most digital currencies such as credit cards, PayPal accounts, serious online wallets, etc. are linked to a bank account and the transactions are transparent with the exception of gift and pre-paid cards.Therefore, all account owners either a person or entity would or at least should have gone through a due diligence process for know your customer (KYC).It’s hard for me to imagine how digital currency, outside of the typically known money laundering or fraud typologies, would offer any additional strategic advantage to an organization or a person who would want to launder large sums of money strategically.

Of course, terrorist financing is another game altogether.Digital currency in the form of pre-paid and gifts cards is an adequate vehicle to move smaller amounts of money while flying under the radar.A form of money (aka game tokens), which is issued by a centralized entity (not to be confused with a government), and circulated within the boundary of a virtual economy (e.g.Second Life, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, etc.).The top virtual platforms, which I checked, will only allow established payment methods (e.g.bank accounts, credit cards (aka digital currencies) or Skrill, etc.)when purchasing their virtual currencies.Again to set up these payment methods the owners or entity should have gone through some form of due diligence process for KYC.Not only, do I wonder how many, if any, of these virtual platforms, offer the necessary liquidity but also the economic stability to be strategically interesting as a vehicle for laundering large sums of money?I mean nobody wants a headache that his or her investment could lose its entire value overnight.

Again it seems to me that these platforms offer more value as a vehicle for individuals (lone wolf) trying to transfer or launder smaller amounts of money.Let’s focus on Bitcoin to keep things simple.Bitcoins can be exchanged for services and goods similar to digital currency but with a substantially smaller merchant clientele base than digital.Bitcoin is a decentralized network of participating computers that agree to the same standard.Therefore, the entire system is robust and should never be manipulated or shut down as is the case in the virtual economy.When a transaction is generated a community of miners start authenticating the transaction by solving a complex mathematical problem and the first miner to accomplish this is rewarded the bitcoins.For the normal user, bitcoin is no more anonymous than a bank account when accessing through a serious online wallet or exchange service, this isn’t a feature of bitcoin, as their involvement means linking their personal identity to their bitcoin property.

Those willing to go the extra mile and accept the risks, as would be expected from someone desperately trying to cover their tracks.There are alternative entry points to acquire and use bitcoins anonymously.However, such alternatives could leave bearers of bitcoins with more risk due to potential theft or fraud.As witnessed in the wake of Mt.Gox’s collapse the district court of Tokyo ruled that it’s not possible to own bitcoins, making it impossible for victims to sue for the Mt.Gox’s exchange for compensation.Also, those desperately wanting to cover their tracks should be aware that there is no guarantee that during the course of conducting bitcoin transactions that one’s real identity won’t be discovered.Thanks to the public transaction ledger and the IP addresses of the computers involved all of which can be analyzed.Even mixing services operating legally must keep detailed records of how the coins were mixed, which could be subpoenaed by law enforcement.Again, I get that there are pockets of individuals with criminal intentions and they are using bitcoins.

I’m no bitcoin expert but the media hype around bitcoin being some strategic vehicle for the systematic laundering of money or financing of ISIS operations doesn’t corroborate with the material that I have been reading.Bitcoin is still a relatively small market when compared to traditional and digital currencies.With less than 16 million of the 21 million already in circulation; with the rest planned to be in circulation by 2033.Even though it’s not definitively possible to determine bitcoins ownership there are good estimations that ownership of Bitcoins appears to be heavily lopsided.At the end of 2013, 927 people control half of the entire market cap of Bitcoins.I’m assuming this would also present liquidity issues while also making it more difficult for someone to strategically move large sums of Bitcoins.I don’t see Bitcoin replacing traditional or digital currency anytime soon as a strategic vehicle for the laundering of large sums of money.I’m also betting on well-trained bank employees when I say, no bank would accept a conspicuous transaction from a Bitcoin exchange or online wallet, without first doing their due diligence on both the exchange and the customer.

When it comes to strategically laundering large sums of money or financing terrorism it is probably more lucrative to find workers willing to sell counterfeit products on the beach or in large cities to tourist for hard cash…as is already the case today!If we want to continue to move away from cash, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and blockchain technology will fill an important gap and offer a stronger foundation on which to build a cashless society.Again these are my initial thoughts and as always, I’m interested to hear the views and thoughts of others./homepage Also join the AML Knowledge Centre on LinkedIn and get in on the discussion.My profession international business development and sales are also my passions.Devoted to helping financial service institutions choose the right technology for their AML programs making them more effective and customer centric.An ex-professional basketballer with a passion for fitness and respect for nature.I enjoy starting inspiring discussions with articles on Anti-Money Laundering, Cryptocurrency, financial technology, Human trafficking, and terrorist financing as well as on sports & fitness.