Chinese authorities have halted the Solana Accelerate event in Shanghai over alleged unauthorized promotional activities involving domestic entities, according to a Friday report from Financial News, a state-backed Chinese-language publication affiliated with the People's Bank of China (PBOC). Solana Accelerate is the global conference series of Solana, a major open-source smart-contract blockchain network, hosting gatherings for developers and industry participants in cities worldwide.

The outlet cited an unidentified official from a department of the PBOC, who said Solana had promoted its brand through domestic entities, including by placing advertisements on a building in Shanghai's Lujiazui financial district, the city's flagship financial hub. According to the official, such promotional campaigns through domestic entities allegedly violated China's crypto-related restrictions.

The official also claimed that Solana provides technical services supporting the issuance and trading of cryptocurrencies, which he described as illegal financial activities under Chinese regulations.

The halt marks the second reported disruption of a Solana event in mainland China in the past two years, underscoring that the country's restrictions extend beyond digital asset trading into event promotion and marketing. An October 2025 Solana event in Shenzhen was also cut short over venue capacity and public-safety concerns, according to an announcement posted on X by Solana's Chinese-speaking community.

The Shanghai gathering had already been rescheduled once before the latest action. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said in an Oct. 16 post on X that organizers postponed the event to “comply with local requirements” after event registration unexpectedly quadrupled, exceeding the cap that had been pre-registered with local authorities. The Solana Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports development of the Solana network.

The reported halt comes amid continued regulatory tightening. In a February notice, the PBOC and several other agencies doubled down on crypto-related restrictions, adding a new prohibition on the unauthorized issuance of yuan-pegged stablecoins. China imposed a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021; the sweeping measures declared crypto transaction services illegal, barred financial institutions from providing crypto-related services, and pushed related businesses offshore. The Financial News report did not specify whether the Shanghai gathering would be canceled outright or rescheduled again, and it cited no public response from Solana.

Source: Cointelegraph