The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has halted Solana's planned offline events in mainland China and will investigate the companies and individuals behind them, according to a Friday report by Financial News, a newspaper backed by the central bank.
The move comes about three weeks after Solana began a large marketing campaign in Shanghai, promoting the "grand opening" of a new city office and a series of events in major mainland cities.
Events Cancelled
The first event in the week-long Solana Accelerate China series was set for Shanghai and was cancelled without warning. At the time, Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said on social media that the event had been "postponed," citing sign-ups far above the maximum capacity registered with local authorities.
The Financial News report cited an interview with an unnamed PBOC official who said the central bank had stopped the events and would open investigations.
Central Bank's View
The official described Solana as a "virtual currency issuance platform" for its SOL token, the native asset of the Solana blockchain and the world's seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.
The official also said Solana provides technical services for issuing and trading major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, including USDT, and that the PBOC views these activities as falling under its ban.
According to the official, such businesses count as "illegal financial activities," a term from a notice the central bank released in February on curbing cryptocurrency risks. The official said promoting Solana in mainland China violated that notice, and that the investigations will cover both the entities and the individuals involved.
The February notice was issued by the PBOC together with seven other regulators. It repeated the need for strict oversight of the crypto sector and widened the crackdown to include the onshore tokenisation of real-world assets, such as property or bonds, within mainland China.
Industry Reaction
Beijing has stepped up its actions against cryptocurrency in recent years, treating businesses tied to virtual currencies as illegal. Solana did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and the Financial News report did not name the entities or individuals that will face investigation.
Some in the industry had been "excited" by Solana's recent moves in China, according to Liu Honglin, founder and director of Mankun Law Firm, a blockchain-focused firm in Shanghai. In a WeChat article published on Friday, Liu wrote that the activity had led some people to wonder whether domestic policy had changed, with many hoping Beijing was easing its stance on crypto.
He said the PBOC's latest statement shows it will be increasingly hard for overseas crypto firms to host events on the mainland, even those focused only on blockchain technology.
