Local police in China are investigating Chinese CoinGecko Feixiaohao, a major cryptocurrency data and news provider.
There have been reports that the local police in China are conducting an inquiry into Feixiaohao, which is a significant cryptocurrency market data and industry news supplier.
Several top executives at Feixiaohao are believed to have been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation in Inner Mongolia, which is an autonomous area of northern China, according to a report that was published on August 28 by the Chinese cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu on his channel Wu Blockchain News.
Reasons for alleged investigation remain unknown
Wu cited a WeChat story from a local cryptocurrency channel in his statement. The Inner Mongolia police have hauled away “many key members of the Feixiaohao team” for investigation, according to the report.
According to Feixiaohao’s official website, the cryptocurrency data platform was formally released in August 2017, making it the most comprehensive simplified Chinese cryptocurrency market data website currently available.
People frequently referred to the website as the Chinese equivalent of CoinGecko, which is a prominent global platform that was developed for the purpose of monitoring the market capitalization of more than 14,000 cryptocurrencies that are now available on the market.
According to Wu’s sources, the reasons for Feixiaohao’s claimed inquiry are now unknown, despite the fact that the investigation has apparently been going on for more than six months. Several of Feixiaohao’s exchange partners reported being unable to reach them, Wu noted.
Chinese CoinGecko “Feixiaohao” continued to operate after China’s “great Bitcoin ban” in 2021
The website has continued to upload fresh articles in the news area, with the most current posts dated August 30. The website is responding to the claims of arrests. According to the traffic analysis website SimilarWeb, Feixiaohao received approximately 200,000 monthly visits in July of 2024.
In the previous month, China had the highest number of visitors, accounting for 23 percent of all visits to Feixiaohao’s website. It is possible that Feixiaohao’s user base in China is large, particularly given the mainland’s conservative attitude towards the cryptocurrency industry.
In September 2021, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), which is China’s central bank, formally implemented a series of restrictive measures for the cryptocurrency market in mainland China.
This was another attempt to limit the use of cryptocurrencies within the country. Despite the fact that prominent cryptocurrency news outlets, such as ChainNews, went offline without providing any explanation in November 2021, local industry sources asserted that the Chinese prohibition on cryptocurrencies did not pose any harm to the local cryptocurrency media.
The fact that a large number of Chinese news channels that are associated with the business have continued to operate up until this point makes it difficult to determine whether or not the provision of crypto information services in mainland China was eventually considered illegal.