The Bitcoin community has been abuzz over the last 48 hours as trading activity on the only Chinese Bitcoin exchange, BTCChina, has gone stratospheric, with volume 700% above the norm and prices skyrocketing more than 10% higher than the Mt.Gox exchange rate.
Traders on the Chinese exchange are showing no signs of relenting, with 7698 BTC traded yesterday and 8495 BTC already traded today. The last trade was for 35.8 RMB or $5.64 USD, significantly greater than the $5.12 rate on Mt.Gox. With this activity, BTCChina has, at least for the moment, thrust itself into position as the second largest Bitcoin exchange.
Possibly related, earlier this month, Roger Ver (memorydealers.com) and Yifu Guo (BitSyncom) organized a Bitcoin meeting in China. With only 24 hours notice, over 30 people showed up to learn about and discuss applications for Bitcoin, including opening an exchange in Macau to facilitate the movement of currency to and from “China’s Las Vegas.”
Also coming out of Roger and Yifu’s visit to China was a contract with a tablet manufacturer to produce a sub-$100 tablet running two Mali-400 processors and sporting a 1200×600 IPS screen. Taking a step toward realizing BitSyncom’s Meshnet project, each tablet will run Bitcoin relay node and wallet software. The manufacturer, hearing about Bitcoin for the first time, considered loading all of his tablets with Bitcoin software (over two million per year), which could spawn others to do the same. Expect to see BitSyncom’s tablet on the market by the end of the calendar year.
Is the activity on BTC China related to the development of these projects? Hard to say, but hopefully we’ll find some answers in the coming days.