The price of Bitcoin continues to leap, bringing the rest of the crypto market gloriously with it. The news of the surge has been making headlines all over the world, appart from China, where the leap has been met with stony silence.
If you search for ‘cryptocurrency’ on Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, you will find hardly any Bitcoin related news from any major new outlets. Similar results appear from the same search in Chinese Google.
Instead, the searches produce a cascade of reports about crypto scams, token-hungry dating app based schemes, police crackdowns and efforts to fight crypto mining.
The country’s biggest financial newspaper, China Economic Daily, made no mention of the Bitcoin price or crypto on its homepage. The silence was the same for China’s biggest newspaper, People’s Daily. Both publications are state-run.
People’s Daily did report on setbacks for Chinese miners however, The National Development and Reform Commission has announced that it will soon place crypto mining on its list of banned industries.
This announcement is likely to mean more serious enforcements are on the way for any miners that have decided to remain in mainland China. The move will also prevent companies and individuals from making investments in the crypto mining industry.
While the current crypto crackdown may seem harsh enough, a more serious media blackout could be on its way. Beijing has moved to block mainland internet access to crypto-related media outlets and also sites run by price-tracking data providers like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap.
The latest Cyberspace Administration of China whitelist of media outlets is now just 1,358. Most noticeable is the omission of Caixin, one of the country’s largest financial news firms.
Regulators in China have warned that internet-based news services that repost news must “follow the latest version of the list” and that “outlets that do not abide by the rules will face punishment.”
This latest development could place further restrictions on Chinese web users’ access to crypto-related information. The Financial Times has reported that Chinese crypto enthusiasts are looking to the DeFi industry for access solutions after a number of major crypto firms left the country or closed up shop.
The Financial Times said, ““While the latest restrictions are deterring new blood from entering the crypto markets, experts say that some existing cryptocurrency holders are turning to DeFi in order to continue to trade. DeFi protocols do not have the same know your customer obligations as the more tightly regulated conventional exchanges.”
Regardless of this, Bitcoin trading has taken a huge hit in China, which was once home to some of the world’s biggest exchanges.
In November 2019, China’s share of global Bitcoin transactions was 15%. This dropped to just 5% in June- three months before the crackdown.
