ChainNews shuts down as China’s crypto crackdown continues

Chinese crypto news site ChainNews shut down its entire platform last November 26, 2021, as announced by co-founder Feng Liu in a Twitter message. Earlier this month, the platform disclosed that the site will be down to undergo some maintenance for 8 to 10 hours, but they will be posting news and updates on their Telegram channel and Twitter profile. However, since November 25, the news outlet has gone dark on both platforms.

After much deliberation, ChainNews has decided to halt its channels of content distribution and production while expressing gratitude to its community. Since the announcement, Liu has refused to give further statements regarding the ChainNews shutdown.

This move was prompted by China’s intensified crackdown against the crypto industry. Signed by China’s top government officials and regulators, the ‘Notice on Further Preventing and Disposing of the Risk of Hype in Virtual Currency Trading’ calls for the increased censorship of information related to cryptocurrencies. 

In fact, the assistant director and chief market analyst of Shanghai Securities Research Institute Cai Junyi was allegedly arrested after promoting digital currencies during a live event.

Bishijie, often referred to as Coin World, had also ceased its operations in Mainland China after it violated the regulations of the central bank. Founded in 2017 and based in Beijing, the website was a known Chinese cryptocurrency community and information provider for investors in Korea and China, according to its platform.

The regulators, along with the authorities, said that they want to develop a mechanism to stop the hype surrounding crypto mining and trading activities. 

‘The government will resolutely clamp down on virtual currency speculation, and related financial activities and misbehaviour in order to safeguard people’s properties and maintain economic, financial and social order’, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said.

ChainNews is not the only crypto news outlet to suffer from China’s tightening crypto regulations. The web domains and mobile applications of two other Chinese crypto news platforms, Odaily and Block123, have also become inaccessible. They have continued their operations on Twitter and Telegram, which are both banned in Mainland China.

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