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China widens crackdown on cryptocurrency miners, shrinking country’s share of global bitcoin network

  • At least three more provinces in China have moved to shut down cryptocurrency mining operations, following Beijing’s crackdown
  • That has removed a vast number of mining machines in the global network used to perform the calculations that verify transactions and create new bitcoin

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China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency miners has resulted in a spectacular exodus of these enterprises to new locations in the US and Kazakhstan. Photo: Shutterstock
At least three more provinces in China have ordered a halt to all cryptocurrency mining operations, falling in line with Beijing’s crackdown, which has diminished the country’s share of computational power used to support the global bitcoin network.
The local governments of eastern Anhui province, Henan in central China and northwestern Gansu province followed recent initiatives against cryptocurrency miners implemented by southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the northern Inner Mongolia region, northwestern Qinghai province and the western Xinjiang region.

Anhui decided to “clean up and shut down cryptocurrency mines” to avoid a power shortage in the next three years, according to a report by local government-run media Hefei Online on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Henan and Gansu branches of the State Grid Corp of China started closing local cryptocurrency mining farms, following a nationwide directive by the world’s largest utility company, according to a tweet on Wednesday by Colin Wu, an influential blogger who writes about blockchain and cryptocurrency.
China’s share of the global bitcoin network began to decline before the current crackdown
China’s share of the global bitcoin network began to decline before the current crackdown
These moves intensify the central government’s campaign against cryptocurrency. In May, the State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee – chaired by Vice-Premier Liu He, the Chinese president’s top representative on economic and financial matters – announced a further crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading in the country.
Coco Feng
Coco Feng joined the Post in 2019, covering the technology and internet sector from the Greater Bay Area. Previously, she worked at the Post's Beijing bureau.
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