Cryptocurrency mining operators are shutting down aspects of their China operations after Beijing promised a “severe” crackdown on the growing industry.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other so-called altcoins plummeted in value over the past week as regulatory news from China caused the markets to decline. On Friday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He called for the “crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior, and resolutely prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field.”
While the news out of China sent cryptocurrencies into a spiral with some investors selling their coins and moving out of the market, it also caused some companies in China to plot to move their operations out of the country given the increasingly stringent regulatory stance that Beijing is adopting.
Huobi, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by volume, announced over the weekend that it has suspended Chinese cryptocurrency mining hosting services and the sale of machines used to mine the internet tokens in China.
