#WeChat crackdowns on cryptocurrency scam accounts—what does it have to do with the central bank’s recent notice?
If you look at WeChat’s latest announcement alongside the People’s Bank of China’s reminder from yesterday, you’ll find that their directions are very consistent.
On September 22, the WeChat Security Center said it will continue to crack down on accounts that use slogans such as blockchain, virtual currencies, and stablecoins to conduct pyramid schemes and scams. Common tactics include first using concepts like “high returns,” “national projects,” “stablecoins,” and “blockchain” to lure people into groups, then inducing them to bring others in, click unfamiliar links, and download scam-related apps, and finally stealing their money.
Also, on September 22, the People’s Bank of China once again reminded the public that conducting virtual currency-related businesses within China is illegal financial activity. It also specifically mentioned not to participate in the issuance, trading, investment, or mining of virtual currencies, not to join related promotional groups, and not to buy or sell virtual currencies “for posting” at others’ requests.
So what’s truly worth paying attention to in these two pieces of information is that regulators are extending “virtual-coin-related risks” from the financial sector all the way to internet platforms, payment accounts, and the flow of funds.
What does this mean for ordinary participants?
In the past, many people thought that as long as they didn’t touch scam projects, they would be fine. But now the risk may show up much earlier in the chain: WeChat groups, unknown links, so-called official customer service, stablecoin projects, OTC payment and receipts, and even helping others “post” transactions—all of these could become entry points for risk.
In particular, projects that claim “national background,” “internal projects,” “stablecoin high yields,” or “new blockchain opportunities” should be extra carefully watched.
Here we also need to distinguish one concept: WeChat governance targets illegal and rule-violating activities such as scams and fraud schemes; it does not mean that WeChat is assessing the value of global BTC prices or the value of the underlying crypto technology itself. Similarly, what the central bank reiterated mainly concerns virtual currency-related business activities within China and their risk boundaries.
So for global BTC行情, these kinds of messages mostly affect mainland participation channels and compliance risks for funds, rather than directly determining the global BTC price.
Conversely, the global market is following a different logic right now. The Nasdaq hitting new highs and BTC breaking $87,000 indicate that global risk-asset capital and sentiment are still relatively strong.
This creates a rather interesting split: the global market is discussing how BTC, stablecoins, and RWA can enter the financial system; meanwhile, mainland regulation continues to emphasize the risk boundaries of virtual-coin-related business activities.
For ordinary investors, what they truly need to guard against now is not just whether the market is going up or down, but the entire scam chain of “fake projects + fake platforms + fake official accounts + unknown apps + fund ‘posting’.”
In one sentence: WeChat governance is aimed at “people who scam money under the name of the coin/crypto circle,” while the central bank is drawing the “regulatory boundary for virtual currency-related business activities.” With both combined, what mainland participants in the future may need to pay most attention to may not be how much BTC rises, but the compliance risk of funds and accounts during the process.