Too many sign-ups for Shanghai: Solana postpones its China tour opener on the morning it was due to start, citing a cap set by local authorities

Solana's push into mainland China hit a wall on its first day. The Solana Foundation postponed the Shanghai opener of its four-city Solana Accelerate China tour on Friday, October 16, the morning it was scheduled to start, according to Cointelegraph and Crypto Times. An email to registered guests cited logistical considerations at the venue and gave no new date.

Lily Liu, the foundation's president, said on X that registrations had quadrupled overnight after the event was publicised, taking numbers past the cap registered with local authorities, and that organisers postponed it to "comply with local requirements". No figures for the cap or the sign-ups were given.

The agenda focused on infrastructure, AI agents, payments and developer tools rather than token trading, Crypto Times reported. Mainland China has banned crypto trading and related business since 2021, and a February 2026 notice from the People's Bank of China and other agencies reaffirmed the ban and added a ban on unauthorised yuan-pegged stablecoins.

It is not the first time: a Solana event in Shenzhen in October 2025 was also cut short. The remaining stops are listed for Hangzhou on Sunday, Shenzhen on Tuesday and Beijing on Thursday.