Deribit and OKX attract significant traffic from China despite a blanket ban: report

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Data from website traffic metrics provider SimilarWeb shows that Deribit and OKEx continue to attract significant traffic sources from China, despite a complete ban on crypto transactions and forex last year.

China has banned the use of cryptocurrencies more than a dozen times over the past decade, however, the cryptocurrencies imposed in September last year were deemed the most stringent.

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Several crypto exchanges, including Huobi and Binance, had closed their doors to Chinese traders for fear of regulatory action. Strict regulatory reforms ensured that Chinese traders primarily shifted their focus to decentralized exchanges and protocols.

Chinese crypto traders have always found a way to circumvent the strict crypto regulatory measures imposed by the government. While many believe that a complete ban on crypto use would be the death nail for the largely underground crypto market in China, geographic traffic data shows otherwise.

An exclusive report from Cointelegraph highlighted the increase in the use of virtual private networks among Chinese merchants following the blanket ban. Recent data from SimilarWeb confirms that Chinese traders are still flocking to centralized derivatives platforms such as OKEx and Deribit.

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Huobi was the primary choice of Chinese crypto traders as they accounted for over 30% of the trading volume on the exchange before the blanket ban. However, now Deribit leads the chart in terms of Chinese traffic with 12% share followed by OKX with 9.6%.

Geographic traffic source for crypto exchanges Source: SameWeb

Another major reason for the increase in traffic on derivative exchanges could be the lack of strict KYC measures in comparison to the likes of Huobi and Binance.

Geographic data shows that Russia, South Korea, the United States and Turkey were the largest traffic sources on centralized exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase. Bybit and FTX were the most visited crypto exchanges in the month of April.