On September 28, reports stemming from social media and crypto-focused forums detailed that China has been blocking a number of cryptocurrency websites. The Twitter handle for 8btc News tweeted that the web portals coinmarketcap.com and coingecko.com have been blocked from mainland China. The ‘Great Firewall,’ as it is often called, has also blocked a number of other sites like tradingview.com as well.
Specific Crypto Web Portals Are Currently Inaccessible in China
One thing the world knows is that China likes to censor the internet and via the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by Beijing, the Great Firewall (GFW) exists in full force today.
Through the forces deployed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), alongside the help of SIIO and the Golden Shield Project, many international web domains are inaccessible to Chinese residents. Mainland Chinese internet users cannot access websites like Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a large quantity of other foreign information sources.
The latest crackdown against cryptocurrencies by Chinese authorities started at the end of September as the People’s Bank of China reiterated that mainland China users accessing offshore crypto exchanges is an illegal transgression.
The announcement caused a bloodbath in crypto markets; the PBOC’s actions sparked major onchain transactions and over-the-counter (OTC) trades. Offshore crypto exchanges further told customers from China that they would not offer services to Chinese residents.
Then on September 28, 2021, the Twitter handle for 8btc News shared a screenshot on the social media platform showing two crypto-related websites are not accessible in China. Seems like both [coinmarketcap.com] and [coingecko.com] blocked IPs from China,” the tweet detailed.
Tiger Securities and Futu Ban New Crypto Positions, Greatfire.org and BLOCKY Analysis Shows Websites Are 100% Blocked
The Chinese journalist Colin ‘Wu’ Blockchain also disclosed this past week that the “Chinese [version of] Robinhood” Futu has banned specific Grayscale positions.
“According to Futu (Chinese robinhood), at the request of the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, GBTC/EHTE/ETCG/GDLC/OBTC/LTCN/BCHG will ban new positions from October 1, 2021,” Wu Blockchain noted. “Tiger Securities, another Chinese online stock trading platform, also issued a similar notice,” the journalist added four days later on September 28.
With the stock applications banning Chinese residents from specific funds tethered to crypto and the website bans, Beijing has been getting far more serious than ever before. The web portal checking site greatfire.org indicates that both coinmarketcap.com and coingecko.com are 100% inaccessible to citizens residing in China.
Tradingview.com is also blocked, huobi.com is blocked, and okex.com is blocked. Bitstamp is 100% blocked in China, and uniswap.org is inaccessible. Coinbase was blocked on September 27, 2021, according to the website analyzer greatfire.org.
Of course, mainland China residents and visitors can attempt to access these websites via a virtual private network (VPN) or from a different proxy. The website analyzer greatfire.org also has an alternate website analyzer called BLOCKY which can check for GFW-blocked websites as well.
What do you think about China’s Great Firewall blocking certain cryptocurrency-related websites? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.