The price of Bitcoin has risen by a staggering 167% in just nine months, a figure that is simply incredible. In 2019, Bitcoin's popularity in China continued to rise, attracting widespread attention and fanatical pursuit. Let's take a deep look at the reasons behind the surge in Bitcoin prices and the phenomenon of China's continued enthusiasm for Bitcoin.

As a virtual currency, Bitcoin has attracted much attention in recent years. Its price fluctuations are huge, sometimes soaring and sometimes plummeting, attracting the attention of many investors. The recent sharp rise in Bitcoin prices is even more surprising. What is the reason behind this surge? Let's unveil this mystery together.

First of all, the limited supply of Bitcoin is an important factor leading to price increases. According to data, the total issuance of Bitcoin is only 21 million, which means that Bitcoin is very scarce. As market demand increases, the shortage of supply has led to a continuous rise in Bitcoin prices. Investors see the future potential of Bitcoin and have joined the frenzy of hype.

Secondly, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin has also attracted more and more people's attention. In the traditional financial system, the central bank can manipulate the issuance of currency by means such as printing money, while the decentralized mechanism of Bitcoin ensures that it will not be manipulated by the government or financial institutions. This feature makes Bitcoin a safe-haven asset in the minds of many people, especially in the context of global economic instability.

In addition, Bitcoin's technological innovation is also one of the important reasons why it is so popular. Blockchain technology, as the underlying technology of Bitcoin, is considered a revolutionary innovation. Its decentralization and high security make Bitcoin have great potential in payment settlement, asset trading and other fields. With the continuous development and improvement of blockchain technology, the application scenarios of Bitcoin will become more and more extensive, which also provides a solid foundation for its future growth.

In China, the popularity of Bitcoin is also rising. More and more people are beginning to pay attention to the price trend of Bitcoin, and some even regard it as an investment target. According to statistics, China is one of the countries with the largest Bitcoin trading volume in the world, with a large group of Bitcoin users. As the price of Bitcoin continues to rise, more and more Chinese investors have joined the Bitcoin craze, hoping to get rich returns through this new asset.

In general, as a virtual currency, there are many factors behind the soaring price of Bitcoin. The limited supply, decentralized nature, and technological innovation have jointly driven the continued rise in Bitcoin prices. In China, Bitcoin's popularity continues to rise, and more and more people are beginning to get in touch with and understand Bitcoin, which has also laid a solid foundation for the development of Bitcoin in China. In the future, the development prospects of Bitcoin are still full of uncertainty, but what is certain is that Bitcoin will continue to lead the development trend of financial technology worldwide.

The four most famous international exchanges:

Binance INTL	OKX INTL	Gate.io INTL	Huobi INTL
China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL	China Line　APP DL

Note: The above exchange logo is the official website registration link, and the text is the APP download link.

Since the beginning of 2019, the popularity of the keyword Bitcoin on major Chinese search engines has been rising as Bitcoin prices have rebounded strongly.

The popularity of Bitcoin as a keyword in local Chinese search engines surged in 2019 (Source: Alex Kruger Twitter)

Since January, the price of Bitcoin has risen from $3,736 to $10,000 in just nine months, an appreciation of 167%.

Alex Krüger, a global market analyst, noted that the rise in search interest in Bitcoin coincided with a surge in interest in the US-China trade negotiations during a critical period.

"The search volume for Bitcoin surged at the same time as searches for trade war (trade war, red) and Trump (traffic, orange)...Only on May 14, when China called for a people's war against the United States,

Other subtle examples are easily attributed to opportunities," he said.

During the escalation of tensions between China and the United States, the potential trade agreement was in jeopardy, and the demand for safe-haven assets and other valuable stores such as gold surged.

While it is too early to determine that Bitcoin is a safe haven asset given its poor performance in the third quarter of 2019 relative to gold’s rebound, rising geopolitical risks in the global economy are encouraging investors to look elsewhere, putting Bitcoin in the spotlight among many investors who were previously uninterested in cryptocurrencies as an asset class.

How will a blanket ban generate interest in Bitcoin?

China has long banned cryptocurrency trading in the region, creating a difficult environment for over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks to operate in China to facilitate large trades.

As a result, most of China’s BTC trading volume has moved to Hong Kong since early 2018, with major services being provided to supplement Chinese investors’ demand for BTC.

The U.S. cryptocurrency market has expanded significantly in recent years as futures markets such as CME provide significant liquidity to accredited and institutional investors, concentrating most of BTC’s daily trading volume in the U.S.

Japan and South Korea remain the other two major regions for the Bitcoin spot market.

Chinese investors are said to be investing in the cryptocurrency market at OTC desks in Hong Kong and bypassing local regulations through offshore companies.

Once cryptocurrencies are purchased, investors can trade assets with greater flexibility on international platforms by using VPNs and stablecoins such as Tether.

In the past, the influence of the Chinese Bitcoin market on asset price trends has been significantly reduced, but if the asset's popularity in China continues to grow amid rising tensions in trade negotiations with the United States, more and more investors could consider Bitcoin as an alternative store of value to invest in the asset through Hong Kong.

As Krüger highlighted, when searches for the USD/CNY pair increased on local search engine platforms, search interest in BTC also increased, which could indicate that local investors are still observing the asset class despite the ban.

"Bitcoin searches often seem to align with USDCNY searches (trade war, red)... However, this is likely due to the weekend effect (interest in both BTC drops on weekends). The USD/CNY breakout on August 5 was likely an exception because everyone started talking about it," the analyst said.

Currently, Bitcoin, the top-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 0.27% over the past 24 hours. BTC has a market cap of $180.08B and a 24-hour trading volume of $13.37B.