Beijing’s Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology has requested local data-centre operators to provide information on involvement in cryptocurrency mining operations. Reuters reports, citing sources.
According to the publication, three major telecommunications operators in the country have received the notice. Authorities are interested in how much energy is used to mine digital assets if companies engage in such activity.
Representatives of the bureau told state media PengPai that they had sent the requests to operators.
According to journalist Colin Wu, this information sparked “some panic in China”.
This caused some panic in China. However, the Chinese government said it was only conducting an investigation. Data centers are difficult to use for Bitcoin mining, and are mainly used for ETH Filecoin.
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 29, 2021
“However, the Chinese government said it was only conducting an investigation. Data centres are difficult to use for Bitcoin mining, and they are mainly used for ETH Filecoin,” Wu noted.
In April 2021, the hash rate of leading Bitcoin mining pools sharply declined due to power-supply problems after explosions and floods at coal mines in several Chinese provinces.
Several days later, the price of the primary cryptocurrency fell by about 10% — from above $61,000 to levels below $52,000.
For details on whether there is a link between hash rate and price, read ForkLog’s article: