FTX's breakdown of its customer base reveals that China makes up 8% of it despite the nation's crypto ban.
Since China's crypto ban, a number of exchanges, wallets, and other cryptocurrency businesses have declared they will no longer provide services to users in the country's mainland and have implemented a blanket IP address block on their services, according to Wired.
FTX's cryptocurrency exchange recently disclosed its bankruptcy to the world. What was once one of the biggest international businesses in the world is now a record of significant collapse in the present crypto and finance industries. Co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly lost all of his wealth, a whopping $16 billion, shortly after the company's bankruptcy filing.
With the fall of FTX, however, the recent bankruptcy hearing shows a breakdown of its customer base, including China, as 8% of the total.
FTX's Customer Base Reports 8 Percent From China
NBC reports that more than 100,000 customers are affected by FTX filing for bankruptcy, causing a huge impact of its collapse on crypto traders. Based on the bankruptcy hearing, a fifth of FTX's customer base was identified as coming from the Cayman Islands.
However, according to South China Morning Post, FTX users from mainland China made up 8% of the company's customer base despite the country's ban on cryptocurrency trading, according to a filing issued on the company's bankruptcy hearing this month.
While FTX has a relatively limited presence in China, with an extra 3% in Hong Kong, it is still a bigger base than the 2% of US customers, where FTX had invested a big sum in Super Bowl advertising and the stadium lease for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association.
As of writing, FTX has not commented on its operations in China. Notably, FTX has nine employees in China, eight of whom are still owed pay, according to the court hearing. Two of FTX's main operational bases are in the US, with 158 employees, and the Bahamas, where the company relocated its headquarters last year.
Reality Behind China's Crypto Ban
Despite the crypto trading ban imposed in China since September 2021, Nikkei Asia reports that cryptocurrency never died but only slowed its activity.
"While bans may discourage new entrants and to some degree stifle activity, they do not stamp out activity entirely, especially for individuals or businesses that were relying on the use of crypto prior to the ban," According to the director of research at Chainalysis Kimberly Grauer.
After China banned the trade of digital assets, one of Hong Kong's most obvious evidence of its rise to become China's bitcoin powerhouse was the FTX exchange based on the revealed customer base. Meanwhile, other well-known names in the cryptocurrency trading industry later moved their operations due to subsequent city laws.
This article is owned by TechTimes
Written by: Andi C.
