GBL is a Chinese bitcoin trading platform that claimed to be based in Hong Kong, recently shut down. An event that might not be worthy of note had ¥25m ($4.1m) worth of users’ money not disappeared with it. This company had launched in May 2013, with its domain btc-glb.com registered on 9th May.
The site’s server was based in Beijing despite the site’s claim to being based in Hong Kong, those weren't the only warning signs. According to WantChinaTimes.com, which quotes a report from Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly, GBL registered as a company with the Hong Kong authorities on 10th June but never received a license for financial services.
GBL was able to attract 1,000 mainland investors, according to a report from Hong Kong-based newspaper The Standard and GBL began issuing stock to its users, and in early October it was capping the amount of money users could cash out. Those actions could have been to maximize the amount of money it held.
Bitcoin has been called a cryptocurrency because it is decentralized and uses cryptography to control transactions and prevent double-spending, a problem for digital currencies. Once validated, every individual transaction is permanently recorded in a public ledger known as the blockchain. Payment processing is done by a network of private computers often specially tailored to this task.
On 26th October, GBL shut down and vanished without a trace.The address listed on its website proved to be a fake.
the evidence points towards malice but the warning signs were there. For 1,000 investors, though, the excitement of getting on the bitcoin gravy train seems to have suppressed their better judgement.
Just over a week ago, BTC China the first trading platform to trade bitcoins for Chinese yuan, shot past Mt. Gox to momentarily become the world’s number one bitcoin exchange and, on the ground, businesses are beginning to awaken to the digital currency’s potential with a bar in Beijing leading the field by becoming the first in China to accept bitcoin.
The site’s server was based in Beijing despite the site’s claim to being based in Hong Kong, those weren't the only warning signs. According to WantChinaTimes.com, which quotes a report from Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly, GBL registered as a company with the Hong Kong authorities on 10th June but never received a license for financial services.GBL was able to attract 1,000 mainland investors, according to a report from Hong Kong-based newspaper The Standard and GBL began issuing stock to its users, and in early October it was capping the amount of money users could cash out. Those actions could have been to maximize the amount of money it held.
Bitcoin has been called a cryptocurrency because it is decentralized and uses cryptography to control transactions and prevent double-spending, a problem for digital currencies. Once validated, every individual transaction is permanently recorded in a public ledger known as the blockchain. Payment processing is done by a network of private computers often specially tailored to this task.
On 26th October, GBL shut down and vanished without a trace.The address listed on its website proved to be a fake.
the evidence points towards malice but the warning signs were there. For 1,000 investors, though, the excitement of getting on the bitcoin gravy train seems to have suppressed their better judgement.
Just over a week ago, BTC China the first trading platform to trade bitcoins for Chinese yuan, shot past Mt. Gox to momentarily become the world’s number one bitcoin exchange and, on the ground, businesses are beginning to awaken to the digital currency’s potential with a bar in Beijing leading the field by becoming the first in China to accept bitcoin.
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