Back in September 2015 - long before bitcoin became the "world's biggest bubble in history", and when it was still trading at just $200 - we explained not only that the primary purpose behind the use of the cryptocurrency was evading capital controls, but predicted that it would rise much, much higher as more Chinese, and not only, money launderers caught on to the real function of bitcoin and other cryptos, to wit:

... we would not be surprised to see another push higher in the value of bitcoin: it was earlier this summer when the digital currency, which can bypass capital controls and national borders with the click of a button, surged on Grexit concerns and fears a Drachma return would crush the savings of an entire nation. Since then, BTC has dropped (in no small part as a result of the previously documented "forking" with Bitcoin XT), however if a few hundred million Chinese decide that the time has come to use bitcoin as the capital controls bypassing currency of choice, and decide to invest even a tiny fraction of the $22 trillion in Chinese deposits in bitcoin (whose total market cap at last check was just over $3 billion), sit back and watch as we witness the second coming of the bitcoin bubble, one which could make the previous all time highs in the digital currency, seems like a low print.

A little over two years later, and several thousand percent higher, we were right on both counts: not only did bitcoin proceed to soar to meteoric highs, but the Chinese capital outflows were just getting started and only a series of draconian interventions by China in 2016 managed to briefly halt the hot money exodus which amount to roughly $1 trillion in Chinese reserve outflows.