Çin‘s top social media platform, WeChat, with more than a 1.1billion active users, gathered headlines with its new policy updates. The new policy update has the right to ban crypto-friendly accounts and allow access to non fungible tokens (NFT)-related services.

As per the official Twitter handle of Hong Kong-based crypto news reporter Wu Blockchain, public WeChat accounts dealing in the allocation, trading, and accounting of cryptocurrencies and NFTs will have their functionality restricted or prohibited. These accounts will fall under the ‘illegal business’ group.

Çin'de günlük 1.1 milyardan fazla aktif kullanıcısı olan WeChat, kurallarını güncelledi: Kripto ve NFT'lerin ihracı, ticareti ve finansmanıyla ilgili WeChat kamu hesapları sınırlı işlev görecek veya yasaklanacak. https://t.co/0I9oMrvFTp pic.twitter.com/mzclYjFZNg

- Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) Instagram Profilini Görüntüle Haziran 20, 2022

The new policy also emphasizes NFT trading, with the firm noting, Accounts that supply services or information related to the secondary transaction of digital collections should equally be handled in accordance with this article.

Last year, the Chinese government proposed a phased ban on the local crypto sector between May and September. However, the timing of the most recent WeChat policy change would indicate that the platform has been allowing some crypto activity to go undiscovered since then.

Discussing the terms of punishments, the new policy deals with imposing some restrictions and states:

Once such violations are discovered, the WeChat public platform will, according to the severity of the violations, order the violating official accounts to rectify within a time limit and restrict some functions of the account until the permanent account is banned.

Further, there is still some regulatory uncertainty in the nation about NFTs, as the asset can be bought with fiat. To avoid potential regulatory difficulties and confusion related to the financialization of the technology, platforms still usually restrict secondary trading. 

In general, officials have been critical of NFTs. The China Internet Finance Association, The China Banking Association, and the Securities Association of China issued a joint statement in the month of April warning the public about the “hidden dangers” of investing in the assets. 

Since March, popular platforms such as Wechat and Ant group-owned Whale Talk have maintained a distance from the tech. As they both reportedly began regulating NFT platforms from their networks due to the absence of regulations clarity and fear of elimination from Beijing.