Exchanges Huobi and Binance no longer open accounts in mainland China. The largest Ethereum mining pool in the world will no longer operate in the country.
Since the ban on bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies by the Chinese government, many companies began to emigrate from the country. The exchanges Binance, Huobi and FTX, and the Sparkpool mining pool, are some of these companies that announced the end of all activity in China.
Since September 24, 2021, the Central Bank of China reported that all operations regarding cryptocurrencies are illegal in the country.
This prohibition includes trade and mining. This situation led several companies to look for more options to set their departure from a country that has already taken similar measures in the past.
In the blink of an eye, the Huobi exchange, one of the most popular exchanges according to data from CoinMarketCap, announced that it had stopped accepting new users from China to comply with local regulations.
In addition, starting on December 31, it will begin to phase out user accounts in China. According to the official statement, more details will come to the public light in the future.
The exchange FTX announced something similar, which closed its offices in Hong Kong to settle in the Bahamas, according to its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried in a post via Twitter.
Regarding FTX’s new headquarters, the businessman known as SBF in the social network assured that the Bahamas is one of the few nations to set up comprehensive regulation for digital currencies.
Another exchange that will follow similar ways will be Binance. It is one of the biggest exchanges worldwide, and it will not take registrations of new users in China either. This restriction only applies to the mainland of the country since, in Hong Kong, users can operate with both exchanges.
Binance’s story regarding regulations has had its highest peak in 2021. It starts with the United Kingdom but then gets followed by other countries on various continents. The exchange has faced various legal setbacks that hinder its operations.
At the time, the company ratified its commitment to contribute with the authorities to advance joint regulation, and apparently, the same should happen in China as well.
According to the Reuters news agency, other Chinese firms, such as financial services provider Babel Finance or digital asset management platform Cobo, have already migrated their offices to Singapore.
Mining is now a Forbidden Activity in China
This endless persecution of cryptocurrency activities in China is not something new for miners in that Asian nation. For many months, they emigrated due to the prohibition of their operations in several regions.
With these new guidelines from the Central Bank and the Government, world-leading companies such as Sparkpool, the largest Ethereum mining pool, have had to limit their activities.
On the other hand, Sparkpool will no longer bring support to its mining clients in China. It is the mining pool that has 28.6% of the total hash rate of the network, according to data from btc.com. The company clarified that it would provide more information about this announcement soon.
By: Jenson Nuñez
