Bitcoin Miners Are Shifting Outside China Amid State Clampdown
Published Jan 05, 2018 01:59AM ET
Updated Jan 05, 2018 05:31AM ET
Bitcoin Miners Are Shifting Outside China Amid State Clampdown
(Bloomberg) -- As China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies broadens to bitcoin miners, some of the industry’s biggest players are already shifting operations overseas.
Bitmain, which runs China’s two largest bitcoin-mining collectives, is setting up regional headquarters in Singapore and has mining operations in the U.S. and Canada, Wu Jihan, the company’s co-founder, said in an interview. BTC.Top, the third-biggest mining pool, is opening a facility in Canada and ViaBTC, ranked No. 4, has operations in Iceland and America, their founders said.
Chinese policy makers, who last year banned initial coin offerings and called on local exchanges to halt virtual currency trading, outlined new proposals this week to discourage bitcoin mining, a computing process that makes transactions with the cryptocurrency possible. Officials plan to limit the industry’s power use and have asked local authorities to guide miners toward an “orderly” exit from the business, according to people familiar with the matter.
While the moves are unlikely to have a noticeable effect on bitcoin transaction speeds, they could reshape the cryptocurrency mining industry. Miners have until recently flocked to China because of the country’s inexpensive electricity, local chipmaking factories and cheap labor. They’re now looking for alternatives.
“We chose Canada because of the relatively cheap cost, and the stability of the country and policies,” Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC.Top, said in an interview. He also considered locations in Iran and Russia.
Bloomberg News reported the Chinese government’s planned curbs on bitcoin mining Wednesday. The People’s Bank of China didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment.
Bitcoin, which surged 15-fold last year, was little changed on Friday. It’s up about 5 percent in 2018.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Steven Yang in Beijing at kyang74@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jessica Zhou at jzhou75@bloomberg.net, Michael Patterson, Sam Mamudi
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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