On Thursday, October 24, China’s President Xi Jinping said at the 18th collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee that the country should regard blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovations and should commit to accelerating the development of the technology.

The laud of blockchain from president Xi immediately created a knock-on effect in the world’s most populous country (with nearly 1.4 billion residents) that could bring blockchain to the mainstream.

Officials, funds and average people all eyeing on blockchain

Following Xi’s blockchain remark, Xuexi Qiangguo (literally “Study and strengthen the nation”), a government propaganda app, rapidly rolled out a 25-episode course on blockchain technology for all party cadres across the country who are required to use the app every day.

Search volumes for blockchain-related keywords saw a whopping 1382.79% surge on Chinese search engine Baidu and a 329% growth on messaging app WeChat on Friday October 25 after 5-minute long introduction about blockchain in China Central Television’s daily 30-minute evening news Xinwen Lianbo (which is one of the world’s most-watched programmes as it is shown simultaneously by all local TV stations) and Chinese state media outlets’ intensive reports on Xi’s great push for blockchain.

The president’s remarks on blockchain has done more than just increase public awareness of the technology, it also resulted in large rallies in China’s blockchain-related assets. Blockchain concept stock Xunlei (XNET) saw its stock price soar 107.76% to $4.82, the highest daily rise since its listing on Nasdaq in 2014. Some other 100 stocks of blockchain-related A-share firms soared to the daily limit of 10 percent immediately after the stock market opened on Monday, amid expectations that large funds would pump into the blockchain sector following president Xi’s endorsement.

Not only driving the huge A-share market, the heatedly discussed Xi’s blockchain statement also brings cryptocurrencies of Chinese blockchain teams back to life after the long-term sluggish. Chinese crypto projects including NEO, ONT, QTUM, BTM, GXC all witnessed gains of over 50 percent that day, among which, Bytom (BTM) soared a staggering 359% to a high of 1.7 yuan ($0.24) on the early morning of Oct. 28 from an intraday low of 0.37 yuan ($0.052) on Oct. 25.

China already take the lead in blockchain

Presumably the first time the communist party’s central committee collectively studied blockchain, the October 24 meeting indicates that the central government attaches great importance to the future development of blockchain at the policy level, which will play a major role in the direction of the country’s blockchain technology development and industrial innovation.

In fact, China is leading the world in the use and development of blockchain technology. It had filed the most blockchain-related patents in the world and some of the biggest names in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space are Chinese firms such as Bitmain and Binance.

Almost all of the country’s big name companies have already leveraged blockchain or been considering doing so in their business. E-commerce giants Alibaba, JD.com and Suning have used blockchain in tracing the goods of their platforms; Banks and financial institutions have leveraged the technology in payments and settlements…

China has also been researching and developing its national digital currency for almost five years and is ready to launch it in the near future.