The government may have cracked down on bitcoin trading in the country, but this hasn’t deterred many investors desperate for a slice of the bitcoin pie.

Back in September when the government banned crypto exchanges, there waas huge concern that it would decrease the demand for bitcoin and so the price would fall. However, the price has continued to rise rapidly, hitting record highs again and again.

According to the South China Morning Post, peer-to-peer exchanges are being used to trade cryptocurrencies.

 Instead of user a centralised exchange, the buy and seller interact directly with eachother. There were just 4 P2P platforms to trade cryptocurrency in China back in September, but now there are 21 active platforms in the country. Since the ban on centralised exchanges, P2P bitcoin trading has risen by 250% according to LocalBitcoins, one such p2p platform.

Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong said “Telegram is very popular for large over the counter trade. While WeChat is used by the less paranoid”

WeChat is the most popular messaging app in China, but some of those who are buying and selling bitcoin have switched to Telegram, an encrypted communication app. This is due to concerns that the government are monitoring messages sent through WeChat. 

The government has indeed noticed the rise in P2P trading activity. 

Their research group, China’s National Committee of Experts on Internet Financial Security has said that “over the counter trading is booming. This warrants further attention.”