Why Chinese love bitcoin but ‘old money’ Hong Kong doesn’t: a former trading platform operator speaks out
Bobby Lee, who co-founded a cryptocurrency trader, explains the very different ways they are viewed by Chinese, Hongkongers and Westerners, and why China’s clampdown on trading is only making bitcoin more resilient
Bobby Lee, the co-founder of what was China’s longest running bitcoin trading operation, has the polished pitch of a seasoned salesman. He is very convincing and, after 30 minutes of listening to him, I am tempted to buy a bitcoin myself – at least, I would be if I had US$15,000 to spare, because that is what one bitcoin costs on this particular day.
Just four months ago you could have bought a bitcoin for little over US$3,000. The price has increased five times since China cracked down on cryptocurrencies in September, with authorities banning bitcoin trading and initial coin offerings.
“When I recommend people to invest in bitcoin I am not trying to benefit from their investment. I am genuinely telling them that this is something really new, really innovative, it’s here to stay,” says Lee, the CEO and co-founder of BTCC, which shut its China trading operations in September.
Bitcoin sinks 14pc below US$13,000 after South Korea mulls ban on cryptocurrency trading
Based in Shanghai, Lee was in Hong Kong this month to give a talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC), do a couple of interviews and meet some clients. Even at our breakfast meeting at 8am, he is pretty persuasive. “The people who are dismissive of bitcoin are the people who don’t bother to look under the bonnet and see what it’s all about,” he says.
Lee isn’t a salesman by training. His background is in computer science – he earned his bachelor and master degrees from Stanford University – and was working as Walmart’s vice-president of technology in China in 2011 when his Silicon Valley-based brother Charlie Lee introduced him to bitcoin. Later that year, his brother created his own cryptocurrency, Litecoin, a clone of bitcoin and often called “digital silver” – as opposed to bitcoin, the “digital gold”.
“I left Walmart at the end of 2012, and in early 2013, together with two co-founders – part-time hobbyists who I reached out to – we formed BTCC, offering a platform for people to buy and sell bitcoin in China,” Lee says.