Despite Beijing'southward ever-increasing crackdown on the crypto industry, at that place are still some signs of life in the People's Republic regarding the Bitcoin network and over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

China intensified its clampdown on crypto concluding week in an attempt to suppress any remaining activeness related to digital avails within its borders. The regime specifically targeted crypto transactions, but as researched past Cointelegraph, this action is nothing new, with at to the lowest degree 19 similar crackdowns over the by decade or so.

Despite the latest move, at that place are still 135 Bitcoin nodes in operation in People's republic of china according to data from Bitrawr, which measures nodes by geographical location. Nonetheless, this is but i.21% of the full 11,262 Bitcoin nodes spread beyond the planet. In that location may exist more if they are operating behind virtual private networks and/or using onion routing with Tor, which masks locations.

Bitcoin nodes are the software that runs the protocol, containing the full ledger or a segment of it containing a history of the transaction information. Distributed and decentralized systems are specifically designed to exist difficult to close down completely, and then the regime may struggle to extinguish these concluding few hangers-on or those operating via Tor.

While information technology'southward difficult to put figures on the volume due to its opaque nature, OTC trading is as well maintaining a foothold in China according to various reports as is the local currency pair.

Local media outlet Wu Blockchain reported that the RMB/USDT pair, which is however offered past major exchanges, such as OKEx and Huobi, has been trading at a premium. It noted panic selling terminal calendar week, which has since subsided.

OKEx is currently offering 6.35 yuan for one Tether (USDT) where the bodily substitution charge per unit for a greenback is 6.47, according to XE.com.

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OTC trades are carried out peer-to-peer (P2P), which circumvents the usage of a bank or the spot markets on centralized exchanges — though many exchanges do have related OTC desks. According to Coin Dance, volumes in Communist china take been relatively stable since early 2022, with around seven million yuan (around $1 million) being traded per week on P2P platform LocalBitcoins.

LocalBitcoins book CNY. Source: Coin Trip the light fantastic toe

Bobby Lee, former CEO of People's republic of china's first crypto exchange BTCC, thinks that Beijing will target OTC desks in its adjacent crackdown. Earlier this week, he said that OTC platforms that are operated by the big exchanges volition exist closed downward or forced to exclude Chinese users. Speaking to Bloomberg on Wednesday, Lee added:

"They really don't want any loopholes where people tin use a digital currency as a vehicle to move avails abroad."

He followed that upwards with a prediction that BTC markets are due another FOMO rally that could send prices to $200,000.