Key Takeaways
- The PBOC is probing Solana’s new Shanghai office, reinforcing China’s hostility toward crypto.
- Authorities halted a Solana event in Shanghai, enforcing strict bans on digital asset activities.
- This swift crackdown crushes industry hopes of China reopening its markets to foreign crypto firms.
Report: Solana to Be Probed Over Crypto Activities in China
China remains an unfriendly jurisdiction for crypto companies, and those who took risks to make inroads now face scrutiny.
According to SCMP reports, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is preparing to probe the activities of Solana, a top-ten cryptocurrency project operating in mainland China, reinforcing the country’s hostile stance on digital assets.
Financial News, a PBOC-linked financial outlet, recently identified Solana as a virtual currency issuance platform and also stressed that it provided issuance and trading services for major digital assets on its blockchain.
An unidentified PBOC official said these activities were not allowed on the mainland and were classified as illegal in accordance with a notice issued in February.
“Overseas entities and individuals may not, in any form, illegally provide RWA-tokenization-related services to domestic entities,” the notice, issued by eight government agencies and the PBOC, stated.
The reports come after the Solana Foundation established a commercial office in Shanghai, leaving crypto actors and the wider digital assets ecosystem stunned, considering China’s historic anti-crypto stance.
Relevant industry actors, including Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, praised the move at the time. “It’s amazing to see that Solana was able to advertise and even get an office in China,” he said, with many interpreting the events as a hint of China opening to digital assets.
The office launch featured a light show promoting the Solana brand with the cryptocurrency colors on the curtain wall of the Citibank tower in Lujiazui.
Soon after, on October 16, the Solana Accelerate event got suspended. Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, attributed this suspension to the venue being overwhelmed by attendees, with the event cap exceeding the number registered with local authorities. At the time, she stated that the event would be suspended to “better accommodate the breadth and scale of our community.”
The report states that the suspension, with law enforcement on site, had direct PBOC involvement, with an investigation into the entities and individuals involved pending. Accelerate featured themes such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, physical AI, emerging markets, and local business development, avoiding cryptocurrency trading and speculation.
The unnamed official stressed that the PBOC “will work with relevant departments and local governments, focusing on domestic virtual currency dealers and domestic related entities of overseas virtual currency issuance and trading platforms, to continue to crack down on domestic virtual currency-related business activities and maintain economic and financial order.”
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