Some Chinese Crypto News Sites Appear to Go Dark as Crackdown Continues

Two Chinese crypto news sites, ChainNews and Odaily, as well as information platform Block123 were inaccessible on Wednesday as the Chinese government continues to crack down on the crypto industry.

• ChainNews posted its Telegram account on its Twitter on Nov. 15, saying it would be offline for 8-10 hours as the site undergoes maintenance. When asked via Telegram on Nov. 17 why the site remained dark, the ChainNews official account told CoinDesk that Twitter and Telegram would continue to be updated during the website update.
• Odaily was also inaccessible on Wednesday. The news site’s official Twitter account told CoinDesk on Wednesday that it would be updating a new site with a different URL while maintenance was ongoing. Odaily had invited its audience to join its Telegram community in an Oct. 9 pinned tweet.
• Block123 also could not be accessed on Nov. 17.
• The two publications have continued their activity on Twitter and Telegram, which are both banned in China.
• The People’s Bank of China and seven other top Chinese regulators said they would be stepping up the oversight of media that provide crypto trading information, according to a Sept. 24 policy announcement that is considered China’s most severe anti-crypto move to date.
• News site and app CoinWorld also closed down its Beijing entity on Nov. 15, according to the government’s company registration ledger, months after announcing its closure in July.
• On Tuesday, China’s top economic planning body reiterated its tough stance on crypto and said it is proceeding to the next stage in its crypto mining crackdown.
• On Saturday, the Communist Party’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced it was expelling Xiao Yi from the party over his involvement in crypto mining. Yi will likely be the most high-profile party member to face charges for his support of crypto.

Read more: China’s NDRC to Consider Punitive Electricity Prices for Crypto Mines

UPDATE (11/18, 2:21 UTC): Adds Odaily Twitter response to second bullet point.