A joint operation of the Folks’s Bank of China with Shanghai police clamped down on the Solana Speed up China 2026 four-day tour. Authorities blocked the venture’s occasions in Shanghai, whereas the monetary regulator in parallel launched an investigation in opposition to these locals who helped the blockchain platform with logistics and public relations.
What drew such a harsh response from the Chinese language authorities was ‘too aggressive’ offline advertising and marketing of the tour. On the night of October 14, a workforce related to Solana, along with Shanghai contractors, put big vibrant logos of the SOL token on the Citigroup Tower skyscraper facade in Lujiazui – the very coronary heart of Shanghai’s monetary district. This was not simply an advert: high managers, together with Solana Basis president Lily Lu, began publicly boasting in regards to the opening of Shanghai’s new workplace in a prestigious constructing.
All this large marketing campaign predictably prompted an pleasure in crypto circles. Even Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, recognized merely as CZ, expressed his amusement, calling ‘wonderful’ the truth that Solana managed to not solely do a promo in China, however get an workplace there as nicely. BNB Chain didn’t obtain so successful, added CZ.
Blockchain that (nearly) made it
It looks like the organizers tried to bypass the regulatory limitations utilizing a positioning trick. The four-day tour between Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Beijing was marketed strictly round applied sciences like AI brokers, robots, IT growth – not about crypto in any respect.
The maneuver didn’t get recognition in China to say the least, and the backlash didn’t take lengthy to comply with.
The morning session on October 16 in Shangri-La was shut down outright, with contributors held for over an hour on the road after police abruptly arrived. Lily Lu tried to slender the angles and said that the cancellation was brought on by registrations quadrupling, so the location was not prepared to ask all registrants.
Quick ahead to November 6 and representatives of the Folks’s Bank of China, in an unique interview with the state company Monetary Information, lastly ended speculations on what really occurred. He instantly known as the skyline advert and all of the aligned occasions an unlawful advertising and marketing of digital currencies. The Central Bank’s place is ‘black and white’ there: SOL is a cryptocurrency and Solana’s infra not solely facilitates cash issuance, but in addition helps stablecoin turnover (particularly USDT), which is banned.
Organizers in the face of Solana Basis breached the crypto-risk settlement collectively issued again in February 2026 by eight Chinese language authority departments. The doc instantly bans all of the promotion of abroad crypto tasks and implements particular person legal responsibility for Chinese language residents and firms that assist to do that.
Solana Basis hasn’t offered any official feedback on the matter but.
The sign by Folks’s Bank of China is unambiguous although: full cleanup of all of the mainland market out of international blockchain networks and actions related to them.
