Hong Kong based Bitcoin exchange BitSpark has announced (archive) its decision to "temporarily retire" its exchange, opting instead to shift attention to remittances across the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Hong Kong and China. As part of that change of direction, BitSpark intends to launch a remittance focused product later this month at the 2015 Innotribe semi finals in Singapore.

Founded by Australian George Harrap, BitSpark launched last year and in October 2014 received seed funding from the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, a company owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government.