China, home to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency mining farms, now wants to ban them completely
- Bitcoin, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, is now at around US$5,200, its highest level in four months
China’s top economic planning body has proposed new rules that would see the closure of all local cryptocurrency mining facilities if enacted – a move that would potentially end the country’s dominance in the energy-hungry, yet lucrative industry.
The NDRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via a message board on its website.
Cryptocurrency mining is the process of validating transactions in digital forms of money like bitcoin and ethereum in exchange for new coins given as a reward. The specialised computers used for the mining activity consume large amounts of electricity.
China is home to some of the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining farms – data centres hosting the mining rigs – thanks to cheap electricity in the country’s coal-rich Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia regions. In recent months, Chinese miners are known to have deployed machines in the southern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces to take advantage of the even cheaper hydropower available there during the rainy season.