TLDR
- China’s blockchain market will grow to $1.4 billion by 2027, a 71% increase from its $816 million high in 2024.
- Wu Hai, CEO of the China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF), identifies China’s AI blockchain integration as the key driver.
- The country’s strategy focuses on infrastructure and applications in government, finance, and tourism, differentiating itself from crypto.
China’s blockchain industry is projected to double in size by 2027, reaching a value of $1.4 billion. This was predicted last Sunday by Wu Hai, CEO of the China Internet Investment Fund. He added that integration with artificial intelligence (AI) projects will boost the sector by 71% from its $816 million valuation in 2024.
While this figure is only about a tenth of the estimated blockchain market in the United States for 2024, Wu expressed confidence that the sector is about to experience “explosive growth.” “Our investment campaigns are helping the blockchain industry solidify its basic software and hardware foundations,” Wu told China’s Cailian Press. “We are looking to promote high-quality development.”
This optimism comes years after Beijing cracked down on the cryptocurrency industry, forcing a purely technological and state-driven focus, while the US market has been supercharged by the Trump administration’s pro-crypto policies.
Two-pronged Strategy: Infrastructure and AI
The CEO explained that the country’s blockchain investors are executing a two-path strategy. The first involves building key infrastructure and application platforms. Meanwhile, the second path focuses on integrated applications and “value scenarios.” These scenarios include blockchain adoption in the government space, as well as in finance, culture, and tourism.
The China AI blockchain integration is fundamental to this second path, as AI-powered technical support service platforms are expected to adopt blockchain technology widely. Wu noted that investment, financing, and industrial development of blockchain in China have already yielded “significant results in integration and application,” particularly in the enterprise and financial services sectors.
This state-driven push dates back to 2019, when President Xi Jinping called on the public and private sectors to “increase investment and accelerate blockchain development.”
As a result of the crypto purge, most of the country’s blockchain players focus on private network solutions, with high activity in central and local government, administration, and the judiciary, where it is used to store and verify electronic evidence. The CIIF, a $15 billion fund launched by China’s web regulator, remains the engine of this investment.
