China tightened its course against Bitcoin
The central government has been taking action against the crypto scene for weeks. Now the accounts of crypto enthusiasts have been blocked on the social media platform Weibo. The advance should not have been the last attack.
China is tightening its action against cryptocurrencies. After a number of attacks against the mining and trading of Bitcoin were recently observed, a number of specialized accounts in China’s social networks were blocked over the weekend. Similar to the USA or Europe, where crypto enthusiasts like Elon Musk (49) spread their messages via platforms such as Twitter, there are a number of hardcore fans in China on the comparable platform Weibo. Access to several crypto-related Weibo accounts with a high number of followers has now been blocked; a message appeared that the account in question “violates laws and regulations”.
The communist state power is thus further tightening its recently confrontational course against crypto currencies. Last month, several industry associations started a campaign against crypto-related financial and payment services. Shortly afterwards, the State Council in Beijing – the cabinet is China’s highest administrative body – announced that it would take action against Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin trading. The push against social media accounts is now another escalation that is likely to be followed by further action. For example, analysts expect illegal Kypto activities to be linked more closely to China’s criminal law in the future.
With the Weibo stop, state regulators are trying to get control of the public debate, as they are with other unpleasant issues. Of “Judgment Day” for crypto opinion leaders, wrote a Weibo Bitcoin commentator who calls herself “Woman Dr. Bitcoin mini”. Her main account was blocked on Saturday.
“The government is making it clear that no Chinese version of Elon Musk can exist in the Chinese crypto market,” said Winston Ma, associate professor at NYU Law School. He was referring to Tesla boss Musk, who last caused price volatility with his tweets about Bitcoin or the originally ironic competitor currency Dogecoin. Ma, author of The Digital War, also expects China’s Supreme Court to publish a legal interpretation soon that the crypto mining and trading businesses could fall under China’s criminal law.
