The People's Bank of China (PBOC) is preparing to probe the activities of Solana in mainland China, according to reports cited by SCMP, reinforcing the country's hostile stance on digital assets. The investigation follows the Solana Foundation's establishment of a commercial office in Shanghai and the abrupt suspension of a Solana event in October with law enforcement involvement.
PBOC-Linked Outlet Identifies Solana as Virtual Currency Platform
Financial News, a PBOC-linked financial outlet, recently identified Solana as a virtual currency issuance platform and 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.
Shanghai Office and Event Suspension
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.
PBOC Vows Continued Crackdown
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."
