Bitcoin giant BTCC bought by Hong Kong investment fund, plans to focus on international market

Bitcoin mining and exchanges conglomerate BTCC has been acquired by an unnamed Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund. The resources will help fund BTCC's international focus as it exits the Chinese market.

BTCC's business has been decimated by a regulatory crack-down in China, which first banned initial coin offerings (ICOs) and then cryptocurrency trading on exchanges based in the country. Beijing now has Bitcoin mining in its gun sights, according to recent reports in the FT and elsewhere.

A spokeswoman for BTCC said: "We currently aren't releasing the information on the fund nor the amount of resources raised."

The BTCC mining pool mined nearly $900 million worth of Bitcoins in 2017 and the company's its exchange business traded more than $25 billion worth of coins. BTCC's Mobi wallet, which was introduced in March 2017, now has customers from 180+ countries, added the spokeswoman.

In a statement BTCC co-founder Bobby Lee said: "Today's acquisition is an incredible milestone for BTCC that validates all of our hard work over the past few years. I'm very excited about the resources this gives BTCC to move faster and aggressively grow our businesses in 2018 and beyond."

BTCC officials said the company will now focus exclusively on the international market and its three major products — BTCC Pool, led by Denver Zhao, BTCC's senior vice president in charge of mining pool business; Mobi, led by Mark Ma, BTCC's vice president of product management; and USD Exchange, which will be led by Aaron Choi.

Zhao, who has several years of sales experience and an MBA from the University of Strathclyde, said that the acquisition would allow BTCC to realise its vision of global digital currency adoption.

Zhao said:"We now have the resources to realise our vision of a world in which the convenient and trustworthy digital currency services we create get everyone using digital currencies."

Ma, who has more than 10 years of product design experience at Alibaba and other companies, added: "Mobi, the global multicurrency wallet that we introduced in March 2017, now has customers from over 180+ countries. The capital injection we received today gives us a boost towards reaching our goal to grab a dominant market share in the payments and digital currency industries of each of those countries."

Choi, who has 10 years of startup management experience at RockYou, Tapjoy, Chinapex, and other companies, said BTCC would use its experience operating the longest-running bitcoin exchange to provide the most accessible digital currency services going forward.

"We gathered ample experience, expertise, and customer feedback over seven years of operating the longest-running and most trusted bitcoin exchange," said Choi. "The acquisition gives us resources to more effectively apply our unparalleled industry knowledge to provide customers with the most accessible digital currency services."

Lee says he is optimistic about BTCC's future. "I'm excited about this new chapter in BTCC's future — the acquisition poises us for success in 2018 and beyond.

"The resources we'll gain and the new set of experienced and talented executives we'll have joining the BTCC team give us impetus to lead every segment of the digital currency ecosystem, including the pool, payments, and exchange businesses," he said.

Calvin Cheng, a Singaporean businessman, former Singaporean parliamentarian, and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader who advises the Hong Kong blockchain investment fund, said, "We're humbled that we were able to acquire BTCC. BTCC has an unparalleled brand and reputation, and we look forward to taking it greater heights of success internationally."