OKCoin ends China’s bitcoin withdrawal freeze

After months of delay, China’s largest bitcoin exchange by trade volume, OKCoin, has finally resumed withdrawals on its platform.

Chinese cryptocurrency news source cnLedger tweeted that it has “received report that OKCoin (CN site) resumed withdraws! W/d limit based on vip level, starting from 10BTC/200LTC/1000ETH daily.”

It has been more than 100 days since OKCoin, Huobi and BTCC—China’s so-called “Big 3” exchanges—announced that they would completely halt bitcoin and litecoin withdrawals on their respective platforms. The initial announcement estimated that the suspension will last 30 days while the three exchanges improve their anti-money laundering capabilities to prevent “illegal transactions.”

The upgrades were part of the requirements set by the People’s Bank of China, who called on digital currency operators to step up their game against anti-money laundering. The upgrades were completed in March, but the exchanges had to wait for Chinese regulators’ approval before they were able to resume bitcoin withdrawals, hence the delay.