China Slams Illegal Websites and Accounts for Exaggerating BTC Returns

Key Insights:

• The Cyberspace Administration of China has ousted 12,000 accounts and 105 websites for hyping crypto returns.
• More than 51,000 posts promoting crypto investments were deleted.
• The cyber arm will work with other departments to continue the illegal crypto information clean-up campaign.

China is on a clampdown spree on illegal cryptocurrency promotions by social media accounts and websites.

In a Tuesday announcement, the country’s central internet regulator – Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) – said that it has stepped into a clean-up campaign to deal with illegal bitcoin (BTC) promotions that exaggerate high investment returns.

“Since the beginning of this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China has implemented the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and took various measures to clean up and deal with a batch of illegal information, accounts, and websites that promote and hype virtual currency.”

The CAC has come up with a notice on “Further Preventing and Handling Hype Risks in Virtual Currency Transactions,” urging website platforms to increase efforts to slam illegal crypto promotions.

Weibo and Baidu Shut 12,000 Illegal User Accounts

In what the central cyber arm calls a “high-pressure crackdown on virtual currency transaction speculation,” social media behemoths Weibo and Baidu have closed 12,000 user accounts that were deemed “illegal.”

The expelled accounts include that of the founder of @ICE Blizzard and @Coin Circle Baoye, the translation from the official release noted.

The CAC has also cleaned up over 51,000 illegal and misleading messages that implied – “Easy to make money by investing in Bitcoin.”

The department closed a total of 989 Sina Weibo accounts, Baidu Tieba accounts, and WeChat public accounts in accordance with the law.

Additionally, the central cyberspace has instructed the local information department to inspect over 500 business entities like “chain nodes” and “venture capital circles” involved in such crypto promotions.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China, together with relevant departments, will shut down 105 website platforms such as “Bi Toutiao,” which specifically advocates for virtual currency marketing and publishes tutorials explaining cross-border currency speculation and virtual currency mining.”

The Cyberspace Administration of China said it would work with relevant departments as the next step in curbing illegal and misleading financial information related to cryptos.

However, CAC did not reveal which departments it would be collaborating with.

China has been tougher on crypto regulations in recent years, including announcing a blanket ban on crypto mining in 2021.