The Chinese government has taken up a strong anti-crypto stance in the last few weeks, with this cause causing shockwaves throughout the crypto community. Li Xiaolai is one of the biggest names in the Chinese blockchain investment industry, and he has decided to call it a day – for now at least. Li posted on his personal Weibo account saying that he has had enough of people impersonating him and that he will be taking a personal break from the blockchain investment scene.
Many crypto investors from around the globe are taking this as a bad sign for the crypto markets, but in fact it’s simply one man trying to get some peace and rest from the investment world. Li selected his words very carefully, and his choice to use “personal break” implies that his investment firm will carry on investing in projects on his behalf – Li just won’t be involved in the decision making process.
China Clamping Down
China’s government has decided to start removing cryptocurrency operations from the country, and several big companies have begun bowing to the government’s demands. WeChat closed down a number of crypto related accounts, including one belonging to the popular crypto exchange Huobi. WeChat then continued its rampage a few days later, taking out the account of Bitmain – the largest crypto mining hardware manufacturer and miner of Bitcoin.
Unfortunately, it isn’t just WeChat that is rampaging in China against cryptos, Baidu – the Google of China – has shut down a number of crypto-related forums and even adjusted its search engine results ranking algorithms to bump crypto sites out of the top results. China clamping down on crypto accounts could be one of the reasons Li is taking a temporary break – after all, nobody wants to incur the wrath of the Chinese government.
Impersonators Everywhere
Li mentioned that he was fed up of people impersonating him and using his name on their projects. Li’s name carries a lot of weight in China and if a project has an endorsement from him it stands a good chance at doing well. However, Li noted that he isn’t associated in any way with around 99% of projects using his name. This is a huge percentage of projects that are fraudulently claiming he is backing their projects. To this extent, Li has said that any projects from this day forwards bearing his backing are lying and should be ignored.
A Temporary Break
In his post on Weibo, Li made it very clear that his break is only temporary. He is planning to use his time off to contemplate his career and what he will do next. The Bitcoin Whale of China has amassed such a fortune in the digital currency market that his next plan could range from retirement on his very own Caribbean island to chilling with Elon Musk on Mars. While Li didn’t mention when he would be back in the crypto game, he said he would let the world know beforehand.
Li very carefully selected his words so as to not scare the crypto markets – a very kind thing to do. While the crypto world will miss Li and his input, everyone needs a break from time to time. His break also highlights the number of potential scams out there, along with the blockchain projects that build a presence off the back of false claims. Always do your own research and be savvy when investing, as it’s clear that illicit and scam operations are only becoming more sophisticated.
