BTC.com’s mining pool stops serving users in China

NYSE-listed NYSE mining company BIT Mining Limited announced that its BTC.com mining pool will exit China and stop serving local customers.

In early 2021 BIT Mining Limited, which had previously traded as 500.com, bought BTC.com mining pool as part of a settlement with Bitmain co-founder Jihan Wu.

According to the press release, in accordance with regulatory requirements the group will cease registering new users from mainland China and will begin deleting existing accounts from 15 October 2021.

“The company plans to intensify its efforts to expand its business and accelerate global growth,” the release said.

On 24 September, reports emerged of another crackdown in China on the crypto industry. The PRC’s National Development and Reform Commission cited the mining sector’s negative environmental impact and its “negligible” contribution to the economy.

The People’s Bank of China described as illegal the activities of platforms that enable crypto exchanges among themselves or with fiat. Previously, the director of the PBoC’s Payments and Settlements Department, Wen Xinxian, described cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as a threat to the traditional financial system.

Against this backdrop, journalist Colin Wu reported that the mining pool F2Pool will not provide services to China and may close or block accounts. On October 15 he clarified that this would occur by December 31.

f2pool announced that it will stop providing services to users in mainland China before December 31.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 15, 2021

Wu also published a screenshot of Tencent’s message. In accordance with government regulatory requirements, the company blocked accounts that “send information about cryptocurrencies and promote cryptocurrency mining.”

Tencent announced that in accordance with government regulatory requirements, it has blocked some accounts that send cryptocurrency information and promote cryptocurrency mining. pic.twitter.com/a97n2zwPmN

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 15, 2021

At the end of September, the largest Ethereum mining pool SparkPool announced it would cease operations, exchanges KuCoin and Gate.io blocked registrations of Chinese customers, and Binance warned of blocking access to OTC trading and halted registrations of new users from the PRC.

According to media reports, more than two dozen crypto firms announced their exit from the Chinese market amid a new wave of crackdowns on the industry.

Earlier, Primitive Ventures’ managing partner Dovi Wan noted the growth in popularity of P2P exchanges in China amid tightening regulation.

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