On Friday, China’s leader, President Xi Jinping, absolutely floored the Bitcoin community. Speaking at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, Xi called for the adoption of blockchain “as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies.” State-run outlet Xinhua  that Xi lauded the potential benefits of blockchain technologies in a swath of industries, including finance, education, health care, food security, and more.

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These statements may seem rather bland — they seem like something any world leader would say in regards to a fledgling, budding technological class — but the Chinese president’s statements will have and already have had a massive effect on China’s blockchain efforts. So much so that a Chinese bank — yes, a financial institution — has purportedly just made an investment in a massive Bitcoin startup.

Chinese Bank Invests in Bitcoin Startup

The rumors of Bitcoin’s death in China have seemingly been exaggerated. According to Primitive Ventures founding partner Dovey Wan, an investor known for her insights into the Chinese market, China Merchant Bank has just announced an investment in BitPie, “the Bitcoin wallet with the longest history and most users in China.” China Merchant Bank, according to NewsBTC’s knowledge, is a mid-sized financial institution in the nation with hundreds of branches. It’s no small fish, that’s for sure.

China… China Merchant Bank just announced invested in BitPie, the Bitcoin wallet with longest history and most users back in China … 😳😳😳 Tho it's a non-custodial wallet there can be a non-zero chance ….[redacted] 🤐🤐🤐 — Dovey "Rug the fiat" Wan (hiring) (@DoveyWan)

According to Wan’s analysis, this is the start of the Chinese nationalization of the cryptocurrency and Bitcoin industry, which comes in response to President Xi’s remarks and the massive public response thus far. It is important to note that this isn’t the first time that a Chinese bank has got its hands dirty with cryptocurrency. Earlier this year, The Bank of China — not to be confused with China’s similarly-named central bank, the People’s Bank of China — released a fully-fledged article on Bitcoin.

Yesterday the posted up an article about . They explained how works, why the price is going up, and why it’s valuable. Never thought I’d see that happen. 😅 — Samson Mow (@Excellion)

Gargantuan Public Response

This seems to be a part of the gargantuan public and private response to President Xi’s remarks. As reported by NewsBTC previously, China’s state-controlled television station, CCTV.com, recently hosted a segment breaking down BTC,  that closely follows the region’s cryptocurrency scene.

A Twitter user going by “CL” has tacitly corroborated the trend of Bitcoin returning to the mainstream in China. The analyst  in his own Twitter post that he noticed that the Chinese government “has organized a nationwide blockchain exam competition,” whose first class is literally titled “Application of Blockchain: Bitcoin.” This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Bitcoin and blockchain are reentering the mainstream in China, this time with the support of their leader. Who knows what could happen next?

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