WeChat Updates Policies to Ban Crypto and NFT-Related Accounts
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The corporation notes that "accounts that supply services or material relevant to the secondary transaction of digital collections will likewise be handled by this rule."
"Once such breaches are identified, the WeChat public platform will depend on the severity of the violations, instruct the violating official accounts to rectify within a time limit and restrict some features of the account until the permanent account is banned," according to the new policy.
Chinese Government Banned Local Crypto Sector
The Chinese government implemented a phased ban on the local crypto sector between May and September last year. Given the time of the most recent WeChat policy amendment, the platform may have allowed some crypto activity to go undiscovered since then. Furthermore, because the assets can be purchased in fiat, there is still a regulatory grey area in the country regarding NFTs. Nonetheless, to prevent potential regulatory difficulties related to the financialization of technology, most organizations and platforms prohibit secondary trading.
In April, the China Banking Association, the China Internet Finance Association, and the Securities Association of China issued a joint statement warning the public about the "hidden hazards" of investing in the assets. Since March, popular platforms such as WeChat and the Ant group-owned WhaleTalk have been distanced from the technology, purportedly eliminating or banning NFT services from their networks due to a lack of regulatory clarity and fear of a Beijing crackdown.