China's anti-graft watchdog probes former digital currency chief

Yao Qian — an influential government figure for China’s blockchain industry and a former head of China’s central bank digital currency institute — has been put under investigation by the country’s anti-graft watchdog, authorities said Friday.

The anti-graft authorities announced that Yao is "suspected of serious violations of discipline and law." The watchdog did not specify the reasons for the investigation.

Yao currently serves as the head of the technology regulation department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Earlier this month, he published an opinion article titled “Warnings Mount Over Novel Bitcoin ETFs That Have Taken the U.S. by Storm” on Caixin, a Chinese financial news outlet.

Born in 1970, Yao was appointed as the first head of the central bank’s digital currency research institute in 2017. He then moved from the central bank to the country’s securities regulator in 2018. 

Yao has been actively engaged in discussions related to blockchain technology and published a book in 2022 covering topics including DAO, DeFi, NFT and X-to-earn. “Web 3.0 innovation has become a development direction that countries are highly concerned with and value,” he noted in the book’s foreword.