Chinese Ethereum mining pool BeePool decided to end its operations in the Asian country after the most recent crackdown on crypto. The company follows in the footsteps of SparkPool, another major Chinese Ethereum mining pool, who are suspending their operations there as well. BeePool is the world’s fourth-biggest Ethereum mining pool where the hash rate is concerned.
On Tuesday, the company announced it would suspend all its mining services starting October 15 at 15:59 pm UTC. According to a notice on the official website, BeePool is no longer accepting registrations from new users. It has also suspended subsidiary accounts for existing users.
The mining company is stopping services due to compliance and regulation concerns from last week’s measures by the Chinese government. The Chinese central bank, People’s Bank of China, declared all crypto-related transactions illegal.
‘Most serious’ ban yet
A comparison between the crypto trading ban on Friday and past ones related to crypto shows this is the most serious ban yet. This is the first time that the People’s Bank of China has announced tougher measures on crypto trading to the extent of outlawing it. Services provided by off-shore crypto exchanges are now illegal as well.
The notice issued on September 24 bans banks and other financial institutions from offering crypto-related services, including crypto to crypto and fiat to crypto exchange. Anyone involved in trades is subject to prosecution, including people not living in mainland China, but working for offshore crypto exchanges providing services to China. Ten agencies cosigned the notice, including the PBoC, a clear indication of the seriousness of the latest ban.
Rachel Lin, founder and CEO of Asia-based decentralized finance (DeFi) derivatives platform SynFutures, said:
“It is important to see the issuers of the notice. The involvement of law enforcement agencies makes the nature [of the crackdown] this time much more serious.”
Mining terminated despite growing profits
SparkPool, another top China-based Ethereum mining pool operator, announced they were suspending operations as of September 30, owing to similar reasons. This is happening despite the fact that profit margins are growing as Ethereum is experiencing a bull run and commanding higher gas fees due to the NFT boom.
The recent technical upgrade had a deflationary effect on its price as well, making it possible for some to buy Ethereum for less. After China’s State Council banned Ethereum mining operations in mainland China in May, some miners quietly resumed them.
