The warning was issued against the background of the rapid activity of the metaverse in the country

On Friday, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a warning about illegal metaverse-related fundraising operations.

The warning comes at a time when China’s digital economy is booming, with businesses aiming to combine virtual reality, gaming, and social networking. Despite its connections to gaming and cryptocurrency, it appears that Beijing has previously supported metaverse ventures.

Chinese tech giants are eyeing the possibilities of the Metaverse.

China Mobile, a state-owned telecoms operator, established the Metaverse industry committee in October, and Chinese internet titans such as Tencent Holding Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have submitted trademark applications pertaining to the idea.

The regulation makes no mention of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or blockchain games, which might represent the intersection of cryptography and the metaverse; instead, it concentrates on general investment ideas prevalent in these two domains.

Some criminals are associating metaverse concepts with their projects and introducing concepts of making money by playing games or high returns with short cycles to lure people into investing by trading virtual currencies and assets.

 in games,” the regulator said, adding that scammers also use virtual real estate.