Solana has opened an office in Shanghai and rolled out its brand there, an initiative that caught the attention of Changpeng Zhao. The former Binance executive believes BNB Chain has not yet achieved a comparable level of presence in China. While the country still bans cryptocurrency trading, the Solana Foundation is focusing on developers, technology companies, and blockchain events.
Solana’s presence in Shanghai stands in contrast to the restrictions imposed on the cryptocurrency sector in mainland China. The foundation associated with the network now has a local office and has put its brand on the city’s skyline, in a major financial center of the country. These signs of visibility have sparked reactions across the industry, including one from Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
Rachel Conlan, chief strategy officer at the Solana Foundation, posted images of Shanghai, including photos of the new office and the advertising campaign. In his response on X, CZ praised the initiative while noting that BNB Chain, the blockchain network incubated by Binance, had not yet managed to establish a comparable presence in China.
The remark drew particular attention because of Conlan’s background. She had previously served as Binance’s chief marketing officer before joining the Solana Foundation in September. Her move to the organization thus puts a former exchange executive at the heart of an initiative highlighting the differences in presence between two competing ecosystems.
A local office and a nationwide campaign
The Shanghai office is part of a broader effort than simply setting up a team in the city. The Solana Foundation is promoting Solana Accelerate China, a series of events planned for Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Beijing. The tour is aimed in particular at developers, business leaders, and players in the technology and finance sectors.
According to information shared about the campaign, it targets more than one hundred fintech and technology companies. The goal is to introduce the ecosystem, foster professional exchanges, and highlight blockchain use cases. This focus on businesses and developer communities allows Solana to build a local presence without making the promotion of token trading its sole point of entry.
The strategy therefore relies on several levers: a physical presence, events in different cities, and brand visibility that is unusual for a project associated with cryptocurrencies. It does not mean that China’s restrictions have been lifted, but it shows that activity around blockchain technology can develop within frameworks distinct from those governing the digital asset market.
A ban targeting crypto operations, not all blockchain technology
In mainland China, authorities have banned cryptocurrency trading and imposed strict regulations on token sales and exchange services. These measures, introduced starting in 2021, remain in force. In February, regulators also stepped up their action against certain activities related to stablecoin issuance and the tokenization of real-world assets, often referred to by the acronym RWA.
This regulation does not, however, amount to a ban on all uses of blockchain. Beijing supports the development of technologies related to distributed ledgers and is working on national digital infrastructure projects. Official initiatives exclude Bitcoin and public cryptocurrencies as benchmark instruments, but are interested in blockchain as a technological tool that can be integrated into controlled systems.
This distinction helps explain why Solana can seek to establish professional connections in China despite the restrictions on trading. Events for developers and businesses are not the same as a campaign encouraging people to buy cryptocurrencies. Their presence must nonetheless comply with local regulatory limits, which remain strict and may evolve.
China’s approach to digital assets is regularly discussed across the industry. An article on statements by Solana’s leader about Beijing’s continued interest in the technology can be read here: Solana’s reflections on China’s approach to blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
CZ’s reaction and Binance’s trajectory
Changpeng Zhao’s reaction gives Solana’s initiative a competitive dimension, without reducing it to a comparison of brands. CZ acknowledged that BNB Chain had not yet secured a similar foothold. When a user criticized him for being too generous toward a competitor, he rejected the criticism: in his view, players who contribute to the industry’s development help move the entire sector forward.
This position is rooted in CZ’s history of ties to China. In his memoir, titled Freedom of Money, he recounts his journey from rural China to the creation of Binance. The exchange was launched in the country in 2017, before a crackdown on token sales pushed the company to move its operations abroad.
Binance’s experience illustrates the difference between building a digital asset company and promoting blockchain technology to local players. Solana’s current presence in Shanghai does not mean it would be exempt from the rules governing exchanges or cryptocurrency transactions. Rather, it shows that some projects are seeking to build relationships with developers and businesses in a complex regulatory environment.
Network speed as a selling point for attracting developers
A blockchain’s ability to process operations quickly is a central consideration for developers and businesses evaluating different infrastructures. Throughput, latency, costs, and security all factor into comparisons between networks. These criteria are particularly important for applications that need to handle a large volume of interactions, even though claimed performance alone does not determine whether a technology is suitable.
Discussions about high throughput extend beyond the Solana ecosystem. Monad’s work, for example, focuses on parallelizing EVM execution to increase the number of transactions processed. Details are presented in this article on how Monad aims to parallelize the EVM and in this overview of its approach to very high throughput.
Rankings and performance announcements also fuel debate about the fastest networks. A comparison revisits the question of which blockchain is the fastest, underscoring the importance of distinguishing between theoretical figures, measured results, and performance observed under real-world usage conditions.
For Solana, a campaign aimed at professionals can therefore also serve to showcase the features of its network and the applications that can be built on it. The initiative does not guarantee adoption by Chinese businesses: that will depend in particular on regulatory constraints, user needs, and developers’ ability to create services suited to the local market.
A technological presence in a sensitive environment
Solana’s visibility in Shanghai raises a broader question: what role can foreign blockchain projects play in a country where cryptocurrency exchanges are prohibited, but the underlying technology remains a subject of interest? The answer depends in part on the distinction drawn between blockchain infrastructure, traded digital assets, and the financial services associated with them.
By prioritizing professional gatherings and exchanges with businesses, Solana is seeking to establish itself within the technological sphere of this environment. This approach does not eliminate regulatory risks and cannot be equated with general authorization for cryptocurrency-related activities. Instead, it highlights how international players are adapting their presence to local rules.
The development of new digital infrastructure also brings security challenges. Networks and platforms must account for cyber threats, fraud risks, and data protection. In this regard, this article describes the takedown of a Russian botnet long considered particularly difficult to neutralize, an example of the cybersecurity challenges connected systems can face.
A difference in positioning between Solana and BNB Chain
CZ’s comparison alone does not make it possible to measure the commercial footprint or adoption of each network in China. It is mainly about a visible fact: Solana has an office in Shanghai and is running an events campaign in several cities, while BNB Chain, according to CZ, has not reached a comparable stage in this respect.
The significance of this initiative will depend on its ability to build lasting relationships with local players, not just on brand visibility. Developers and businesses will need to determine whether the network’s tools, performance, and integration options meet their needs. At the same time, the Chinese authorities retain a decisive role in defining permitted uses.
By publicly praising a competitor’s initiative, CZ also shifted the discussion beyond rivalry between networks. His response frames the expansion of the blockchain ecosystem as a shared interest among its various players, even as each seeks to attract developers, partners, and users. The Shanghai office is thus a tangible sign of Solana’s strategy in China, in a context where the boundaries between technology promotion and cryptocurrency-related activities remain tightly regulated.
