Crypto Gloss

Bobby Lee

Bobby Lee is a Chinese-American entrepreneur who founded BTCC (originally BTC China) in June 2011 — making it China’s first Bitcoin exchange and the world’s largest for brief periods of 2013 — served as its CEO through the September 2017 Chinese government shutdown of exchanges, and subsequently founded Ballet in 2019, a company specializing in non-electronic physical cryptocurrency wallets featuring multi-layer private key protection; he is the older brother of Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin, and has been a prominent voice for Bitcoin adoption in China and Asia.

Background

Bobby Lee grew up partly in the United States and attended Yale University, earning a degree in Computer Science. He worked in tech and went to China where the domestic tech boom was accelerating in the late 2000s. His brother Charlie Lee (Litecoin) separately pursued a career at Google and later Coinbase before founding Litecoin in 2011.

BTCC (BTC China)

Lee founded BTC China in June 2011 — only two years after Bitcoin’s genesis block. At that point, the only other Bitcoin exchanges of note were Mt. Gox and a handful of small Western services.

Growth

  • 2013 — During Bitcoin’s first major speculative bubble ($266 peak in April; $1,200+ peak in November 2013), BTC China became the world’s highest-volume Bitcoin exchange by trading volume for brief periods, largely because the Chinese yuan (CNY) trading pair was extremely active.
  • The Chinese government initially tolerated Bitcoin trading; the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued a notice in December 2013 warning banks not to deal in Bitcoin but did not ban it outright, causing prices to drop.
  • BTCC expanded from pure trading into Bitcoin mining pool operation, hardware sales, and later “Mobi” wallet products.

2017 Chinese Exchange Shutdown

In September 2017, the Chinese government ordered all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to cease operation. Chinese regulators classified ICOs as illegal fundraising and then moved to shut down the exchange infrastructure enabling crypto trading by Chinese citizens.

Bobby Lee and BTCC complied and shut down Chinese operations in October 2017. The exchange briefly attempted to operate offshore in Hong Kong but ultimately ceased operations entirely; the BTCC brand was later acquired by a Hong Kong investment group that attempted to re-launch it.

Lee publicly blamed the shutdown on a coordinated regulatory response to speculative excess in the market.

Ballet

In 2019, Bobby Lee co-founded Ballet — a company producing non-electronic physical cryptocurrency wallets. Ballet wallets are distinctive:

  • No battery, no screen, no software: The wallet is a physical metal card.
  • Multi-layer private key security: The private key is generated offline and encrypted in two separate parts — a BIP38-encrypted key under a separate passcard. The design ensures Ballet itself never has access to the complete unencrypted key.
  • Wide coin support: Ballet supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many altcoins encoded on the cards.
  • Target market: Beginners, gift recipients, and users who are uncomfortable with software wallet complexity.

The “non-electronic” design is a deliberate philosophical choice — Lee argues that for true long-term cold storage, physical metal cards with no digital attack surface are optimal for the average user.

Industry Role

Lee has been an active conference speaker and public advocate for Bitcoin adoption since 2012. He was a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation (c. 2012). He has spoken at Consensus, the Inside Bitcoin conferences, and other global events representing Chinese Bitcoin adoption and the exchange ecosystem’s growth.

Key Dates

  • June 2011 — Founds BTC China (later BTCC), China’s first Bitcoin exchange.
  • 2013 — BTCC briefly becomes the world’s highest-volume Bitcoin exchange during the November 2013 bubble.
  • December 2013 — PBoC notice restricts Chinese banks from Bitcoin dealings; BTCC volume drops sharply.
  • September–October 2017 — Chinese government bans domestic exchanges; BTCC shuts down Chinese operations.
  • 2019 — Founds Ballet hardware wallet company.
  • 2023 — Ballet expands card range and coin support.

Common Misconceptions

  • “BTCC was shut down because of fraud or mismanagement.” — The shutdown was a regulatory order. BTCC was compliant with Chinese law but was caught in the broad 2017 ban of crypto exchanges in China, which was driven by ICO speculation and capital outflow concerns, not BTCC-specific wrongdoing.
  • “Ballet wallets require trusting Ballet employees.” — The multi-part encryption design is specifically structured so that Ballet cannot reconstruct anyone’s private key. The BIP38 passcard is kept separately by the customer; without it, the encrypted key on the card is useless even to Ballet staff.

Last updated: 2026-04

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