China's central bank to probe Solana's Shanghai ads as illegal

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) said on Nov. 6 that, together with local financial regulators, police and market supervisors, it halted the Solana Accelerate China 2026 event in Shanghai and will investigate everyone involved in promoting the network. A bank official called advertising SOL a breach of China's crypto ban.

The details

According to the official's comments, relayed by crypto.news and PANews, Solana placed an ad on the facade of Citigroup Tower in the Lujiazui financial district through a domestic entity, which the official described as virtual-currency marketing. SOL is "essentially a virtual currency," the official said, and the network also provides technical services for issuing and trading USDT and similar tokens.

The legal basis is a February 2026 notice from eight agencies that classifies virtual-asset business as illegal financial activity. The next step, per the official, is a crackdown on domestic dealers and the local affiliates of overseas platforms (ForkLog).

The event, planned for Oct. 16⁠–⁠22, was postponed on opening day. Solana Foundation President Lily Liu attributed that to a fourfold jump in registrations after the publicity, which exceeded the cap agreed with local authorities. That does not confirm or contradict the PBoC's account. At the time of crypto.news' report, SOL traded around $90.17, down 6.58% on the day.

What it means for the market

China banned crypto trading in 2021 and extended the ban to stablecoins and asset tokenization in February 2026. A public PBoC statement shows regulators will act even against advertising and offline events by foreign blockchain projects, and will pursue local contractors.

For Solana this closes off its most visible push into China. For the broader market picture, see the daily brief; network data is on the Solana coin page. This is not investment advice.