Bitcoin tumbles as China intensifies crackdown on crypto mining

Bitcoin plunged 5.98 percent to $32,019 on Monday morning as China intensified crackdown on crypto mining.

In May, the Chinese government had banned financial firms and payment institutions from offering services related to cryptocurrency transactions.

In the same month, the Chinese government also vowed to clamp down on Bitcoin mining and trading.

Global Times reports that authorities in Sichuan, a south-western Chinese province reputed to be the largest hydro-based crypto mining hub in the country, ordered a halt to cryptocurrency mining operations in the region.

It explained that the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Sichuan Energy Bureau issued a joint notice on Friday, ordering local electricity companies to “screen, clean up and terminate” mining operations by Sunday.

The notice listed 26 firms that had been inspected and reported as potential cryptocurrency mining enterprises, including Heishui Kedi Big Data Tech Co and Kangding Guorong Tech Co.

The notice also ordered local electricity companies to immediately stop supplying power to crypto mining projects they have detected, and conduct self-inspection and rectification, and report their results by Friday.

Local authorities were also banned from approving new mining projects.

The newspaper said the ban means that more than 90 percent of China’s bitcoin mining capacity is estimated to be shut down.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, also fell by 7.97 percent to $1,920 on Monday, according to data from coinmarketcap.com.