By John Ikani
China has blocked cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) accounts and influencers from Sina Weibo, which is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
The move follows China’s pledge last month to accelerate its crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading.
Over the weekend, access to several widely followed crypto-related Weibo accounts was denied, with a message saying each account “violates laws and rules”.
“It’s a Judgment Day for crypto KOL,” wrote a Weibo bitcoin commentator, or key opinion leader (KOL), who calls herself “Woman Dr. bitcoin mini”. Her main account was also blocked on Saturday.
“The government makes it clear that no Chinese version of Elon Musk can exist in the Chinese crypto market,” said NYU law school adjunct professor Winston Ma, referring to the Tesla founder and one-time cryptocurrency enthusiast.
Ma, author of the book The Digital War, also expects China’s supreme court to publish a judicial interpretation soon that may link crypto mining and trading businesses with China’s body of criminal law.
Cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu said on his Twitter account, “Wu Blockchain,” that the move could indicate China “is orchestrating to ban trading and mining in its territory,” per Bitcoin.com.
“The total number of fans of these people is more than five million, and their influence on Chinese retail investors may not be less than Musk. The accounts blocked by the Chinese government are mainly recommending investment and trading crypto to retail investors,” he tweeted.
Timeline of Chinese induced Bitcoin dips in 2021
Bitcoin and crypto first started plummeting in mid-May when three Chinese agencies — the China Banking Association, a nonprofit, self-regulating association of financial services firms; the National Internet Financial Association of China; and the Payment and Clearing Association of China — sounded the alarm that the industry should “resolutely refrain” from doing business with electronic currency.
Bitcoin prices further dropped at the end of last month on news that the Chinese Vice Premier Liu He told the State Council of the People’s Republic of China that a “crackdown” on bitcoin mining and trading was needed.
At the time of writing Bitcoin is trading at $33k while major alts have recorded significant percentage losses.
