The recent surge in Bitcoin has reminded many Chinese people of the grand development of Bitcoin in China before 2013: Although the Internet was not as popular as it is now, investors at that time could directly purchase Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and even Bitcoin mining on Taobao. Mine teaching.
X user @MonkeyGe shared his experience of buying Bitcoin on Taobao in 2013 and posted a picture of a successful transaction that year. According to his recollection, there were dozens of merchants selling Bitcoin on Taobao at that time. Although he knew nothing about cryptocurrency, the merchants were willing to patiently teach buyers during the transaction process, teaching buyers step by step how to download the entire cryptocurrency. The node wallet allows him to “participate in great innovation out of curiosity.”
It is reported that these Taobao stores generally supported credit card payment at that time and provided real-time synchronized currency exchange services. Therefore, it can be said that Taobao became the main channel for many Chinese investors to purchase cryptocurrencies in the context of time and space at that time. Brother Hou said that he bought about 1 Bitcoin on Taobao at that time, and the price was about 500 yuan. Although it is impossible to know whether he has exited the position, if he held the position for a long time based on the current price, the profit would have exceeded an astonishing 1,000 times.
As soon as the post came out, many long-term investors also recalled the time at that time. Some people also dug out their transaction records of buying Ripple (XRP) on Taobao in 2013 and expressed that they missed it very much. In addition, some people came up with draft strategies for developing cryptocurrency layouts in the past.
However, on January 7, 2014, in order to comply with the Chinese government's "Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks" and other regulations, Taobao stated in the announcement that merchants should comply with the authorities and banned the sale of a series of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin mines. Machines, mining tutorials and other products. The announcement further mentioned that the People’s Bank of China explicitly requires third-party payment institutions to close transaction channels such as Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Then when searching for the keywords "Bitcoin" and "Bitcoin mining machine" on Taobao, you can see the prompt "I'm very sorry, no relevant products were found". Not only that, many third-party payment systems have also stopped processing Bitcoin purchase transactions. Payment service provider Yipay notified China's largest Bitcoin trading platform Bitcoin China in December 2013 that it would no longer provide payment services. Tencent Its payment service provider Tenpay also stopped serving the platform.
Taobao's ban on Bitcoin and related products being taken offline is undoubtedly another bucket of cold water for this most watched virtual currency, with Bitcoin falling 15% in a single day. Looking back at the market interpretation at the time, Alibaba, the parent company of Taobao, was seeking to be listed in the United States at the end of 2014. It had to rectify any products on the platform that were on the fringes of the law before then, so that it could be successfully listed.
Ten years have passed by in a blink of an eye, and the global cryptocurrency market has also undergone tremendous changes. Today, the channels for purchasing cryptocurrency are very diverse, including centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges, including banking institutions, cryptocurrency ATMs, etc. Although Taobao is no longer the main channel for purchasing Bitcoin, as a Chinese e-commerce giant, it has played an important role in promoting the popularity of Bitcoin and the development of the cryptocurrency market.
But for those cryptocurrency OGs, what they focus on is not how many times the profits of early investment can be, but when one day blockchain technology is fully popularized, these early investors can proudly say that they have witnessed the Bitcoin market ’s glorious years, and the development history of blockchain technology.
Summarize
In short, cryptocurrencies have experienced a period of vigorous development in China, but with the introduction and implementation of regulatory policies, the crypto market has gradually languished. Although the Chinese government’s support and promotion of blockchain technology in recent years, as well as the research and development and pilot projects of the central bank’s digital currency, have shown China’s emphasis and future potential on digital assets and blockchain technology, China’s cryptocurrency market still seems to be difficult to Rise again.