Last week, while speaking at communist party meeting, China’s President Xi Jinping advocated the country’s enterprises to “seize the opportunity” related to blockchain and “strive to let China take the leading position” in its advancement and deployment.
Without any surprise, the crypto community got excited and used it as a hint that the autocratic government is loosening its iron grip on cryptos and starting to legalize the asset in a market made up of 1.35 billion citizens.
In the days that followed, there were numerous reports stating that China may start supporting cryptocurrency. In fact, Reuters reported Monday that a Chinese central bank official stated that commercial banks “should step up their application of blockchain technology to embrace digital finance.”
If the sources of Dovey Wan, a venture capitalist and crypto researcher acclaimed for her knowledge on Chinese market, are authoritative then this could be already taking place. Hours after Reuters report got published, Wan announced that China Merchant Bank has invested in BitPie, China’s leading non-custodial Bitcoin wallet.
However, based on the statement made by Xi, it is too early to claim that the world’s most populous country is relaxing its ban on cryptocurrency exchanges. Still, it can be understood that Chinese are feeling refreshed by Beijing’s stance.
After Xi’s speech was reported by media, searches for the word “比特币” (“Bitcoin”) sky rocketed on WeiBo and WeChat, China’s top social media platforms. Last week, search volumes almost tripled on the aforementioned platforms. Notably, in recent months, a lot of spikes are seen reflecting a sudden rise in interest about Bitcoin, implying a major shift in the country’s awareness about Bitcoin.