Feixiaohao, a major crypto market data and industry news provider in China, is apparently being investigated by local police. This follows the crypto blanket ban in China.
According to the official translated Chinese report, “The key members of the team have been taken away, and people in the cryptocurrency circle may not be able to use non-small accounts next year!”
On August 28, Chinese crypto journalist Colin Wu reported on his channel Wu Blockchain News that several top executives at Feixiaohao are said to have been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous area in northern China.
Feixiaohao, the largest simplified Chinese cryptocurrency market data website similar to coingecko, was suspected of being arrested by the Chinese police. The reason is currently unknown and the investigation has lasted for more than half a year. Many of Feixiaohao’s exchange…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 30, 2024
According to Feixiaohao’s official website, the crypto data platform was formally launched in August 2017, growing to become one of the largest simplified Chinese crypto market data websites.
The website is often considered the Chinese equivalent of CoinGecko, a popular global tool for tracking the capitalization of over 14,000 cryptocurrencies on the market.
Feixiaohao served as a data aggregation platform, delivering real-time information on a number of digital assets and exchanges. It generated revenue primarily from fees paid by cryptocurrency projects to be listed on the platform, selling advertising space, and forming promotional relationships with exchanges and project teams.
Feixiaohao disregarded China’s 2021 crypto blanket ban
According to Wu’s sources, the reasons for Feixiaohao’s alleged probe remain unknown, while the investigation has apparently lasted for a duration exceeding six months.
Along with the stories of the arrests, the website has consistently published new articles in the news section, with the latest ones being dated August 30th.
Based on statistics obtained from the traffic monitoring provider SimilarWeb, Feixiaohao received approximately 200,000 monthly visits in July 2024. China was the largest base of visitors, with 23% of Feixiaohao’s total global visits in the last month.
The user base of Feixiaohao in China might be considered substantial, particularly considering the mainland’s robust position in the crypto market.
According to the report, Feixiaohao had previously been investigated for promoting shady exchanges and scam tokens, which may have prompted the probe. For example, in November 2021, Wu stated that the site had sold the Squid Game token, based on a popular Netflix show, which later turned out to be a rug pull.
Currently, a team claiming to be Feixiaohao exists, but the report claims that it is not the original. Instead, it is thought that a new party has gained access to Feixiaohao’s codebase and is attempting to continue operations under the Feixiaohao brand.
Since declaring Bitcoin transactions unlawful in September 2021, Chinese authorities have been cracking down on the entire digital asset industry. In 2023 alone, almost 42,000 people were prosecuted in that country for their involvement in fraudulent crypto trade.
