China’s embrace of blockchain in October 2019 drew attention to public interest in Bitcoin and to a reported bank investment in a local cryptocurrency wallet provider.
China’s President Xi Jinping delivered a speech last week declaring his state’s intention to “seize the opportunity” of blockchain and “strive to let China take the leading position” in its development and application. Expectedly, the crypto community was sent into a furor—many taking the news as a signal that the autocratic state had begun to dissolve its yearslong clampdown on cryptocurrency and legitimize the asset class in a market of 1.3+ billion citizens.
Is China about to ease up on crypto?
In the days following a number of stories surfaced indicating that indeed, China may be about to begin a state-led effort to embrace cryptocurrency. On Monday, Reuters reported that a Chinese central bank official said that commercial banks “should step up their application of blockchain technology to embrace digital finance.”
If the sources of Dovey Wan are accurate (Wan is a venture capitalist and crypto researcher known for her knowledge of the Chinese market), this could already be happening. Hours after the release of the Reuters report, Wan stated that China Merchant Bank had invested in China’s top non-custodial Bitcoin wallet, BitPie.
In her Oct. 28, 2019 post, Wan reported that China Merchants Bank had invested in Bitpie. This report attributes that account to Wan; the post does not independently establish the bank’s announcement.
Bitcoin search interest in China
It would be premature to say that the world's most populous state is on the verge of lifting its years-long ban on crypto exchanges, yet Chinese citizens seem to be taking its government's new stance to heart.
CryptoSlate’s reporting on Oct. 28, 2019 examined Bitcoin and blockchain searches on Baidu and WeChat. That coverage provides context for the public interest following Xi’s announcement, but does not reproduce this article’s original 90-day Weibo and 30-day WeChat comparisons.
Editor’s note (Nov. 1, 2026): The historical Weibo and WeChat charts could not be recovered. Their numerical comparisons and claims about recurring spikes have been removed.
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