Solana's Shanghai Bund ad lasted 10 minutes, CZ says

A Solana advertisement on Shanghai's Bund waterfront was taken down within roughly 10 minutes, Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said, rejecting suggestions on X that his own post had drawn the authorities' attention to it. BeInCrypto reported his comments on Saturday, as Solana's China roadshow kept unravelling.

What CZ said

• Earlier in the week Zhao had praised Solana's new Shanghai office in a post that drew more than 1 million views. Some users then blamed that post for the campaign being pulled.
• In a follow-up on 16 October he said details that had since emerged showed the ad on the Bund building came down within 10 minutes. He only saw it on X 12 to 24 hours later, in a post that still showed the ad — and, he argued, Chinese censors monitor media in real time, so they acted long before he wrote anything.
• He had seen a public ad as a possible sign that China was softening on crypto, but admitted "that's not quite the case yet, it seems."
• Zhao said he supports progress for any blockchain in any country and called the campaign a good effort.

A rough week in China

The ad episode lands on top of a string of setbacks for the Solana Accelerate China tour. The Shanghai opener was postponed on 16 October — the foundation said registrations far exceeded a cap agreed with local authorities, while BeInCrypto reported that officers kept guests outside — and the Hangzhou and Shenzhen stops were postponed the next day. As of Saturday evening, Solana's official Accelerate page still listed Beijing on 22 October as upcoming, with no announcement either way.

Why it matters

Mainland China has banned crypto trading since 2021, and in February regulators widened the crackdown to stablecoin issuance and asset tokenization. Some traders treat any sign of a Chinese reopening as a potential market catalyst; a ten-minute billboard suggests that remains distant. Solana still keeps its Shanghai office, and its network is days away from the Alpenglow upgrade. New to the trade-offs between blockchains? Start with proof of work vs proof of stake.