Weibo, a Chinese microblogging social media platform, has banned accounts of Binance and TRON, two major crypto entities. The initial reason given for this blockage is “violation of laws and regulation” by the platforms. No further details are provided.
Interestingly, the Weibo accounts of Binance CEO and TRON Foundation founder, Zhao Changpeng and Justin Sun respectively, are still working. Other cryptocurrency projects and crypto exchanges, which are either based in China or operate in China such as NEO and OKEx are also still up.
The Malta-based trading platform Binance is currently one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. With an office in Shanghai, the company was also planning on opening another office in Beijing. Back in 2017, it had to leave China due to a crackdown of the Chinese authorities against cryptocurrency. The company also purchased a Chinese crypto news site recently.
As for TRON, it was founded in Singapore and currently has several offices in China. The TRON Foundation recently made the headlines in China when it was accused of being involved in a multi-million dollar Chinese Ponzi scheme.
The page of Binance on Weibo now only reads “The account has been blocked due to violations of laws and regulations and the relevant provisions of the Weibo Community Convention.” Along with this, all the content of the page and details such as number of followers are also removed.
Back in October, China’s President Xi Jinping has publicly talked in favor of blockchain technology, leading to a huge rise in the prices of cryptocurrency. Hence, this recent development comes as a surprising setback for the cryptocurrency industry.
What Induced the Crypto Ban on Weibo?
The suspension can be a result of the recently introduced stricter policies by the Chinese government. Binance was working towards allowing the Chinese population to buy Bitcoin through Alipay and WeChat. Some believe that the suspension could be a result of these testings. However, no clear clarification is available yet.
Weibo’s suspension of the accounts can be an indication of renewed and increased scrutiny that the crypto space has been under from the regulators in Shanghai. On November 14th, the PBOC (People’s Bank of China) along with Shanghai Internet Finance Rectification Agency issued a notice to local regulators, instructing them to carefully inspect all crypto-related activities and report back to the PBOC before November 22nd.
The aim of these regulations is to target and regulate companies that are involved in crypto trading along with token sales. Companies that are also involved in distributing ICOs (initial coin offerings) or promotions, are also being monitored.
