Breaking: Chinese State Media Issues Warning Against Metaverses

After an all-out ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining, the Chinese government might go after the latest hype in the crypto market- metaverse. The Chinese state media has issued a warning against the metaverse and cloud mining scams, according to a tweet from Chinese insider 8BTC. The report highlighted that the scammers have been actively using the Metaverse terms in their scams to lure more people.

China's state media Xinhuanet warned about #Metaverses and #cloudmining scams. More and more scammers in China are using concepts like metaverse, blockchain and cloud mining to lure ppl in and take their money.

— 8BTCnews (@btcinchina) December 15, 2021

Metaverse has gained a lot of interest in mainland China despite Beijing’s strict crypto policies. Some of the biggest technology giants such as Tencent, NetEase, and Tiktok parent company ByteDance, all have invested heavily in the Metaverse market.

The term “metaverse” is made up of the prefix “meta” (meaning beyond) and the stem “verse” (a back-formation from “universe”). It is most commonly used to describe the future iteration of the internet, which will be made up of permanent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.

Will Beijing Clampdown on Metverse as Well

In 2021, Chinese authorities have carried out a series of policies to put a blanket ban on the use of cryptocurrencies as well as crypto mining. As a result of the crackdown, China’s Bitcoin mining share fell from over 60% to near zero in September.

While Metaverse takes the concept of NFTs to the virtual world, with no regulations in place the Chinese authorities might increase scrutiny quite similar to other digital assets. The growing number of scams related to metaverse is only going to give the authorities more reasons to issue stricter policies against it.

China has banned cryptocurrencies on numerous occasions in the past, however, the decentralized nature of the market often offers a way to bypass the ban. In the wake of a complete ban on foreign crypto exchanges, Chinese traders have started using defi market and Dex platforms more often.