While crypto enthusiasts were sending out their “GM” tweets from Lisbon last week, Shanghai held its only state-sanctioned blockchain event, Shanghai International Blockchain Week. Hosted by Wangxiang Blockchain Labs, the event usually brings together the government, enterprise, academic, and DeFi degen side of the industry with a mix of excitement and anxiety. Blockchain was publicly listed as a key industry in the digital economy in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 long-term goal outline, promoting the “coordinated transformation of the entire industry chain through data empowerment.” But this year’s event was different from the past. Although it still happened, there...