China's Central Bank Halts Solana's Mainland Events, Opens Probe Weeks After Shanghai Office Launch
Key Takeaways
- •China's central bank halted Solana's planned offline events mainland China and will investigate the companies and individuals involved in the promotional campaign.
- •The crackdown came roughly three weeks after Solana announced a new Shanghai office and began the week-long Solana Accelerate China series, whose first event was abruptly cancelled.
- •A PBOC official said promoting Solana violated a February notice, issued with seven other regulators, that treats such crypto businesses as illegal financial activities and extends to onshore tokenisation of real-world assets.
- •Solana Foundation president Lily Liu called the Shanghai cancellation a postponement due to over-capacity sign-ups, while the central bank described a halt with investigations, leaving the series' true status unresolved.
- •China banned cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021, and industry lawyer Liu Honglin said the latest statement shows overseas crypto firms will find it increasingly difficult to host mainland events, even technology-focused ones.
China's central bank has halted the offline events that Solana had planned to hold in mainland China and says it will investigate the companies and individuals involved in the blockchain project's recent promotional push across the country. The crackdown comes just three weeks after Solana announced the opening of a new office in Shanghai.
The action was detailed in a report published on Friday by Financial News, a newspaper backed by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), which said the central bank had stopped a series of offline events that Solana had planned to hold in the country.
From Shanghai Launch to Central Bank Probe
Roughly three weeks earlier, Solana had begun a large marketing campaign in Shanghai, promoting the "grand opening" of its new office in the city alongside a series of events in major mainland cities. The first event of the week-long Solana Accelerate China series was set to take place in Shanghai, but it was abruptly cancelled without warning.
At the time, Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said on social media that the event had merely been "postponed," explaining that the number of people who had signed up was far above the maximum capacity registered with local authorities.
The Financial News report offers a different account of the cancellation. It cited an interview with an unnamed PBOC official who said the central bank had halted the events and would open investigations into the people and companies behind them. The gap between Solana's "postponed" framing and the PBOC's halt-and-investigate account leaves the true status of the week-long series unresolved.
The official described Solana as a "virtual currency issuance platform" for its SOL token. SOL is the native token of the Solana blockchain and, according to CoinMarketCap, is the world's seventh-largest cryptocurrency. The official also said Solana provides technical services for issuing and trading major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, including USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. The PBOC views these activities as falling under its ban.
JUST IN: China's PBOC says Solana promotions violate local regulations and warns of investigations into entities linked to overseas crypto platforms. pic.twitter.com/kaA4YiBOLm
— EyeWhales (@EyeWhales) November 6, 2026
Why Beijing Says Solana Broke the Rules
According to the official, such businesses count as "illegal financial activities." That term comes 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 reiterated the need for strict oversight of the crypto sector and widened the crackdown to include the onshore tokenisation of real-world assets — the practice of turning assets such as property or bonds into digital tokens within mainland China.
Beijing has stepped up its actions against cryptocurrency in recent years and treats businesses tied to virtual currencies as illegal. The country banned cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021. The halt of Solana's events illustrates how that enforcement reaches promotional activity itself, placing on-the-ground marketing squarely within the ban's reach for overseas crypto firms.
Solana did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Financial News report did not name the entities or individuals that will face investigation, leaving the ultimate scope of the probe unclear.
Some in the industry had been "excited" by Solana's recent moves in China, according to Liu Honglin, the founder and director of Mankun Law Firm, a blockchain-focused firm based 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 and many had hoped Beijing was easing its stance on crypto.
The PBOC's latest statement, however, shows it will be increasingly hard for overseas crypto firms to host events on the mainland, Liu said. He wrote that this applies even to events focused only on blockchain technology.
Source: Blockonomi
