Bitcoin trades in Hong Kong saw a massive spike at the end of September—blowing past even the volumes seen at the height of the 2017 bubble—simultaneous to political unrest in the Chinese territory. With nearly $12.3 million HKD (equivalent to $1.5 million in USD) traded in the week ending September 28 according to charts on peer-to-peer trading site Coin.dance’s LocalBitcoins, it was hard not to see a connection with escalating protests, anti-Chinese bank sentiment, and vandalism that recently caused ATMs to run dry, and panic-buying reported at supermarkets on October 7. It’s especially interesting considering the same Bitcoin (BTC) volume jump was seen, on a smaller scale, during the last…