Highly influential Chinese tech companies are doubling their efforts to keep pace with China’s cryptocurrency clampdown.
South China Morning Post reported Monday that three of the largest Chinese tech companies are working quickly to contend with the government’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have reportedly shut down sites, chat rooms, and Internet forums related to cryptocurrencies.
According to reports, China’s famous search engine Baidu has taken down crypto-related chat rooms known as Post Bar services. The action led to the closure of the country’s two popular bar services, Digital Currency Bar, and Virtual Currency Bar.
Both the Jack Ma-owned Alibaba and its direct digital payment services competitor Tencent announced that they’re closely monitoring all transactions related to virtual money on their respective payment gateways.
In a statement released by Tencent, it confirmed that it would be blocking all forms of cryptocurrency trading on its social media platform WeChat. The company said that they’re monitoring all daily transactions in real-time, preventing all suspicious undertakings when needed.
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Meanwhile, Alibaba’s Ant Financial said that its internet payment service Alipay would be banning and restricting all accounts found to be engaged in any form of cryptocurrency trades.
China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency began in September last year, starting with local exchanges and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Since then, the Chinese authorities have urged all crypto exchange operators to move their operations to other countries where virtual currencies are accepted like Singapore or South Korea.
Beijing’s national censorship activities have also led to the shut down of news accounts related to digital currencies on WeChat. Just last week, it has been reported that the government’s crackdown has affected around eight official accounts for crypto-related projects, some of which have already raised millions of dollars for their blockchain programs in crowd-funding investments.
Chinese regulators, including the country’s central bank and ministry of public security, have reminded the public last Friday against crypto-trading and illegal fundraising activities for their blockchain projects and digital currencies.
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