Weibo purges cryptocurrency accounts amid bitcoin volatility as Beijing continues its crypto crackdown
- Microblogging platform Weibo banned at least a dozen popular cryptocurrency accounts on Saturday
- Beijing is ramping up a crackdown on cryptocurrencies amid concerns about financial risks and an effort to meet its green energy goals

At least a dozen popular Weibo users who post content about cryptocurrencies found themselves unable to use their accounts on Saturday night. Other users who attempted to access those pages were greeted with a message saying the accounts had violated Weibo guidelines and “relevant laws and regulations”.
“The account I’ve been using for years is suddenly gone,” one of the banned users posted to the platform under a new account called Professor Hash. “But I’m OK with it. The day was going to come sooner or later.”
Binance, Huobi and OKEx, three major bitcoin exchanges, all had their accounts suspended in March.
The latest purge comes as Beijing pledges to crackdown even further on cryptocurrency mining activities. The government has repeatedly warned about cryptocurrency’s financial risks, which has gained fresh attention recently amid volatile bitcoin prices that have fallen from a peak of more than US$60,000 last month to around US$36,000 this past week.