Since the advent of bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrencies have gone from being a niche topic for tech nerds to ubiquitously recognized — if not always understood — staples of modern finance. Bitkan CEO Liu Yang recently took some time out to give news.Bitcoin.com a peek into the Chinese bitcoin community and its changing ideas and perceptions of crypto, throughout Bitkan’s seven years in the business. Though general narratives have changed and evolved, and the recent covid-19 crisis impacted markets, the CEO says that overall China is still bullish on bitcoin.
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Following Bitcoin, Forming Bitkan
An integrated platform for multiple crypto services, Bitkan was launched in March 2013 by former members of China tech giant Huawei‘s R&D department. CEO and co-founder Liu Yang was head of the Huawei Wireless Technology R&D department at the time, leaving to pursue business in crypto when, according to Bitkan, “most people saw Bitcoin as a Ponzi scheme.”
“Bitkan started out as a geek product,” the company told news.Bitcoin.com. “The actual time that Bitkan was created was back in December 2012. At that time, most of the major exchanges for bitcoin geek players in China were all from abroad, hence Chinese bitcoin community users need some market alerts tools to facilitate price monitoring.”
After launch in 2013, the Bitkan platform grew to be a hub for market data, and an OTC and aggregated trading platform with an active community.
Chinese Community’s Perceptions of Bitcoin Change, OTC Trading Remains Popular
According to CEO Yang, bitcoin was initially a point of general intrigue for Chinese, but soon “went from being an item of curiosity to becoming
