China Slams Illegal Websites and Accounts for Exaggerating BTC Returns

China is actively pursuing websites and social media accounts that are promoting cryptocurrencies illegally.

Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the nation's main internet censor, said on Tuesday that it has launched a cleanup effort to deal with unlawful bitcoin (BTC) ads that overstate potential investment returns.

The CPC Central Committee's decisions and deployments have been implemented by the Cyberspace Administration of China since the year's beginning, and various actions have been taken to deal with and clean up a number of illegal information, accounts, and websites that advertise and promote virtual currency.

In a note titled "Further Preventing and Handling Hype Risks in Virtual Currency Transactions," the CAC calls on internet platforms to step up efforts to combat fraudulent cryptocurrency advertisements.

12,000 illegal user accounts were shut down by Weibo and Baidu.

Weibo and Baidu, two behemoths of social media, have terminated 12,000 user accounts that were judged to be "illegal" as part of what the central cyber arm termed a "high-pressure assault on virtual currency transaction speculation."

The translation of the official statement said that the ejected accounts included those of @ICE Blizzard and @Coin Circle Baoye's creator.

The CAC has also removed over 51,000 false and unlawful messages that claimed it was simple to profit from Bitcoin investments.

In compliance with the legislation, the department shut down 989 Sina Weibo accounts, Baidu Tieba accounts, and WeChat public accounts altogether.

Additionally, the local information department has been directed to examine more than 500 corporate organizations, such as "chain nodes" and "venture capital circles," that are participating in such cryptocurrency advertising by the central internet.

The Cyberspace Administration of China will shut down 105 internet platforms, including "Bi Toutiao," which specializes in promoting virtual currency marketing and dissects cross-border currency speculation and virtual currency mining in lessons.

The Chinese Cyberspace Administration said that the next stage in preventing the dissemination of false and illicit financial information about cryptocurrencies would be collaboration with relevant agencies.

CAC did not specify which departments it would be working with, however.

China has been stricter with its cryptocurrency rules in recent years, and in 2021 it will completely outlaw cryptocurrency mining.