Many have speculated that the recent increase in the price of bitcoin ($542 USD on Bitfinex at time of publication) can be traced to China, where Bitcoin trading has doubled on some exchanges in the last four days as Chinese investors respond to a recent currency devaluation, and look for ways to avoid the government's stringent capital controls.

China's economy has been flatlining for some time now. That and the strengthening U.S. dollar prompted the People's Bank of China to devalue the yuan by 0.45 percent last Friday to its lowest level since February 2011.

New Interest in Bitcoin

Huobi and OKCoin, the two largest Chinese exchanges that now account for some 92 percent of Bitcoin global trading by (self-reported) volume, both reported almost double the usual trading volume over the past weekend.

OKCoin's Jack Liu, Chief Strategy Officer, confirmed the surge in trading volume and told Bitcoin Magazine:

"After two long years, Bitcoin's price crossed back across the USD $500 mark led by OKCoin's CNY exchange - the largest digital asset trading platform in the world. The price first reached $500 on May 28, and was followed later on by OKCoin's USD exchange and other global platforms such as Coinbase."

 Huobi's CEO Leon Li said that trading volume on their exchange has doubled in the last few days as investors look for a safe haven:

"We do think that China's economic situation has certain influence to the price. Totally, RMB has been on the trend of depreciation for a long time, and the domestic stock market has been weak since last September. More and more Chinese investors and their hot money need a new investment market, and a convenient alternative investment like Bitcoin is easy to be accepted by the traders."