Solana Co. chairman says China will find a way to manage crypto

China banned crypto trading years ago. The interest never really left.

That is the core argument from Joseph Chee, Executive Chairman of Solana Co. Speaking at Korea Blockchain Week, he said China will find a way to regulate or manage crypto, even after years of some of the strictest rules anywhere.

His point was not that Beijing is about to flip a switch. He suggested China may allow more crypto activity over time while keeping a firm grip on oversight. He was also clear that the process will take time.

What Chee actually said

Chee’s case rests on a simple observation. Investors, academics and developers in China have kept showing up for crypto, even under a regulatory regime built to discourage them.

Beijing’s caution has not been random. Its concerns center on speculation and fraud. Chee’s argument is that management, not prohibition, may become the more practical path.

One clarification matters here. Solana Co. is a treasury company focused on acquiring the SOL token. It is a separate entity from the Solana Foundation, the organization associated with the Solana blockchain itself.

So Chee is speaking as an executive at a company with a direct stake in SOL. That does not make his read wrong. It does mean his optimism about Chinese demand lines up neatly with his company’s interests.

The developer events tell their own story

Chee’s remarks landed alongside a growing wave of events aimed at Chinese-speaking developers.

In October 2025, Solana Accelerate APAC took place in Shenzhen. The event drew enough people that it faced minor police scrutiny over overcapacity.

More events are scheduled for October 2026 in major Chinese cities. They focus on a range of technology themes.

This approach is notable for what it avoids. Developer meetups center on building and technical education rather than trading. That gives them a different profile from the activities China has outlawed.

How China got here

In 2017, Beijing banned initial coin offerings and crypto-based fundraising. In 2021, it widened the campaign, declaring crypto transactions illegal and restricting mining.

The stated goal was to limit risks tied to capital flight and financial instability.

Those bans on domestic trading, mining and related activity remain in force on the mainland.

Hong Kong took a different route. In 2023, it introduced a licensing regime that lets approved platforms serve retail crypto investors. That has positioned the city as a testing ground for policies China might one day consider more broadly.

This is where the idea of a dual-track system comes in. Strict rules stay in place on the mainland. A more flexible, licensed environment runs in Hong Kong. Chee and others in the industry have argued this split could offer a model for safer and more progressive digital asset management.

What this means

For investors, the main takeaway is about direction, not timing. Chee is describing a slow drift toward management of crypto activity, and he explicitly says it will take time.

Hong Kong is the place to watch. If its licensed retail market keeps operating without major blowups, it strengthens the case that crypto can be supervised rather than banned.

For blockchain ecosystems, the developer race is already underway. Solana’s push into Chinese cities suggests some projects want relationships in place before any policy shift happens.

The risks are just as real. China’s bans from 2017 and 2021 remain the law on the mainland. Even overcrowded developer events have drawn police attention.

There is also the question of who is making the forecast. A SOL treasury company has obvious reasons to expect Chinese demand to find an outlet eventually.

What makes Chee’s argument hard to dismiss is the pattern itself. China tried to remove crypto from its financial system, and interest persisted anyway, from investors to academics to developers packing rooms in Shenzhen.