may be easier to read web version:
http://www.bitcoinfuturesguide.com/bitcoin-blog/reminder-chinese-bitcoin-spot-exchanges-okcoin-and-huobi-are-faking-a-majority-of-their-trading-volume
To most traders it is common knowledge that Chinese exchanges fake their volume, whether it's OkCoin and Huobi's spot or futures exchanges. Here's an example from Huobi to demonstate the absurdity of the fraud they are committing:
On the 1-day candles you see the volume at over 2.2 Million BTC being traded on Huobi.
And here's the same chart for OKCoin:
Oh no! Only 2 million BTC daily volume on OKCoin. They lose the fake volume competition with Huobi
Shame to their family.
Raise your hand if you think OKcoin and Huobi are really trading 4.5 Million bitcoin per day, almost 1/3 of the current supply:
So we don't even need any more information than this to know that they are committing fraud in their trading volume. Taking 1,000 BTC and trading it between two exchange accounts at 0% fees and reporting it like it's a normal transaction would be a criminal offence in any regulated environment.
If that wasn't enough though, we have its own competitors blowing the whistle on them, in an ignored interview the CEO Bobby Lee did, he clearly calls them out for this practice:
There is a lot of mining that goes on in China. However, I caution you: do not read too much into the high trading volumes. China has decent high volumes but unfortunately two of my competition exchanges - I never like saying this - but they are artificially inflating their volumes through the technique of wash trades.
Okcoin and Huobi are known for inflating trading volumes artificially, basically selling from left hand to the right hand.
They use it for bragging purposes. They try to outdo each other. It's not regulated yet so they don't get slapped on the wrist for doing that. China does have big trading but we are not talking about orders of magnitude higher. If you were to believe the numbers you would think the world is 95% Chinese.
The two largest exchanges in bitcoin, OKcoin and Huobi, are lying about how much trading volume they really do. This should be a scandal, but it's par for the course in bitcoinland. Pressure should always be put on exchanges to be honest and transprent, but people should focus on what the real problems are when our "market leaders" are up to no good like this.
OKCoin's ex CTO "CZ" also
blew the whistle on their fraudulent trading volume data:
Fake Volumes
I can confirm some of the above bots are designed to pump up volumes. During certain periods, these bots have also been used in a manner to create orders that will only trade against themselves, not with user orders. This mode of operations was strongly resisted by even Chen and Liu (programming, matching engine), but Star Xu insisted on executing it.
Take this as a public service announcement: do not trust OKCoin or Huobi Chinese bitcoin exchange volume, it's mostly fake and is not an indication of anything but how desperate they are to create an appearance of dominance in the market. This is beyond mere speculation, as it has been confirmed by C level executives and top players in the business.
