Crypto mining plug pulled in 3 more Chinese provinces

Three more Chinese provinces have announced plans to crack down on crypto mining amid fears that power-hungry plants could scupper the country’s ambitious carbon neutrality goals.

As reported by State-owned website Heifi Online, Anhui in the east of the country has promised to “comprehensively clean up and shut down” all virtual currency mining projects within three years.

And according to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, the regions of Henan and Gansu are also cracking down.

The tough new measures are coming into play off the back of a Chinese State Council meeting in May. Ministers at the meeting determined that crypto’s volatility and the huge amounts of electricity required by miners would negatively impact the country’s financial stability and hinder its efforts to become completely carbon neutral by 2060.

The State Grid Corporation of China has issued a notice to all parts of the country requesting the closure of virtual currency mining. At present, some provinces with insufficient power in China, such as Henan and Anhui, have also begun to implement it. pic.twitter.com/kgDY1msDQ5

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 14, 2021

Regions Henan, Anhui, and Gansu are all included as part of the wider crackdown on cryptocurrency projects.

Nobody’s safe from China’s war on crypto

China has made its stance on cryptocurrency plain to see this year, going after both businesses and consumers seen to be engaging with the crypto ecosystem.

• China’s central bank forced a software company with ties to the cryptocurrency “Cat Coin” to shut down its operations.
• The province of Sichuan, which once took a lenient stance on cryptocurrency, sent out an order to terminate all crypto mining and trading activities.
• TikTok, the Beijing-based app run by Bytedance, isn’t safe either as advertisements on cryptocurrency are outlawed within the platform.

“Personal bank accounts should be cherished and not used [to buy or sell crypto],” says China’s central bank.

The statement was made in response to shutting down a token called Mao Li Coin — Cat Coin in English. https://t.co/uE7k0I8EL6

— Protos (@Protos) July 9, 2021

[Read more: Texas lures Bitcoin miners from China despite failing energy grid]

Crypto mining rigs are selling like scrap metal

The continuing crackdowns are having a huge knock-on effect for the country’s miners, not least where their pricey mining gear is concerned.

As reported in late July, once-costly high-tech mining rigs are being sold on the cheap by spooked miners keen to avoid persecution from the government.

Top-tier mining rigs within mainland China have managed to collapse in price by up to 80%, leading some miners to claim they’re now “selling like scrap metal.”