According to local sources, Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, suspended the accounts of numerous important cryptocurrency and defi influencers in the nation yesterday. This could be a continuation of the Chinese government’s anti-crypto attitude, which began in 2013 and has intensified in recent days with the government’s assault on crypto trading and mining.

Crypto-Related Accounts on Sina Weibo Have Been Suspended Sina Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, recently blocked a large number of bitcoin and decentralized finance (defi)-related accounts from its platform. Colin Wu, a local cryptocurrency journalist, announced this on Twitter under the handle “Wu Blockchain.” According to the reporter, this might be a natural continuation of the Chinese government’s new crackdown on trading and mining on its territory.

Due to its large following, Wu believes that the suspension of these accounts will have an impact on how Chinese merchants conduct business in the future. Wu expressed his thoughts on the matter in a tweet, writing: The total number of fans of these people is more than 5 million, and their influence on Chinese retail investors may not be less than Musk. The accounts blocked by the Chinese government are mainly recommending investment and trading crypto to retail investors.

These individuals have a combined follower base of more than 5 million, and their effect on Chinese retail investors may be comparable to Musk’s. The Chinese government has restricted accounts that primarily advise individual investors on cryptocurrency investment and trading.

Weibo, along with Wechat, is one of the most popular social media platforms in China, and a substantial percentage of Chinese individuals utilize it on a regular basis to stay up to date on news that isn’t covered by the mainstream media. However, government censors monitor and watch this alternate platform.

While Sina Weibo has not released a formal comment as to why these cryptocurrency-related accounts were banned, they all have one thing in common: “Bitcoin” () in their user names.

This isn’t the first time As worrisome as this may appear, this is not the first time Sina Weibo has taken such steps. The social media network also charged against Okex, Huobi, and Binance accounts earlier this year, suspending them without warning. This might be the start of a series of actions aimed at stepping up the legal assault on these practices. Wu had this to say about it:

The Propaganda Department oversees Chinese social media and media. When it comes to cracking down on Bitcoin transactions, the official media is taking a coordinated approach. As a result, the present restriction on cryptocurrency-related social media accounts and content remains in place.

As a precautionary measure ahead of a likely crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activity in the next months or days, several major exchanges and other companies have preemptively fled China markets.