BTC China, the largest Bitcoin exchange provider for the Chinese market, just announced that their 0% fee promotion has ended, rather abruptly. Rumors have also been circulating on Baidu, Weibo, and Bitcointalk that there may be turbulence in the waters ahead for the Eastern bitcoin markets. Sources indicate that at least one CEO of a bank settlement company in China tweeted that they have pulled the plug on settling bitcoin-related transactions, although the tweet was later deleted.

Dear BTC China valued customer: To stabilize the recent turbulent Bitcoin market and minimize potential market manipulation, BTC China will end the 0% trading fee promotion, effective immediately, and revert to the 0.3% trading fee. We deeply apologize for the sudden change. BTC China, December 16, 2013

It will be interesting to see how the new fee structure affects trading volume on the largest Bitcoin exchange. The 0% fee promotion helped catapult BTC China to the top, with a daily turnover consistently over 50,000 bitcoins, nearly double the volume of competitors Mt.Gox, Bitstamp, and BTC-E. For the moment, markets are penetrating downward support on the rumor of bank settlement issues for Chinese bitcoin exchanges, but the news may prove to be unsubstantiated.