Chinese Banks ‘Educate’ the Public on the Pitfalls of Crypto

Following the crypto crackdown on crypto transactions through banks and the mining industry this year, banks have begun displaying messages in branches and waiting rooms, warning their customers to stay away from crypto.

Per the media outlet FJSen, the Dongshan County (Fujian Province) Branch of the Postal Savings Bank of China has begun a month-long event that will see its staff go out into the county and inform community members that cryptoassets are a tool of crime, and that they could incur risk to themselves by making crypto-related investments.

The bank spoke of the need to meet its “social responsibilities,” and has named its campaign the “Prevention of Criminal Activities Using Virtual Currency for Money Laundering.”

Staff members were photographed visiting a busy market in the town of Xipu to “familiarize” market-goers and stallholders with the ills of crypto, and “not to fall for” crypto-related advertising or fall for the promises of people attempting to persuade them to make token investments.

The media outlet published a photo of a young female staff member speaking to an elderly woman in the market.

The bank, along with many other leading Chinese commercial banks, has launched similar campaigns at other branches.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency (via CnStock) reported that law enforcement authorities in the Zhejiang Province, as well as national cybercrime investigating agencies, had “randomly spot-checked” 36 IP addresses belonging to 20 state-owned entities in seven regions – unearthing a “number of violations of regulations” pertaining to crypto mining.

The operation found that government personnel at 14 of the 20 state-owned institutions had been using public resources to mine tokens. Their number included a computer room manager surnamed Ding at the Vocational Education Center in the Shangyu District – who had used the facility to mine ravencoin (RVN) for “111 days” using three mining rigs and the facility’s internet capabilities.