Chinese crypto mining rig maker Bitmain is reportedly set to meet with miners and industry participants next week to discuss relocating mining operations overseas, as China’s ban on cryptocurrency mining is extended to more parts of the country.
Fast Facts:
- Bitmain is reportedly meeting with businesses in the crypto mining sector on June 19 in Chengdu — the capital city of the southwestern province of Sichuan, whose abundant hydropower resources have drawn miners — to discuss matters including relocating their mining operations overseas, and tax and legal duties, local media reported, citing sources from Bitmain.
- Bitmain says it plans to build mining farms in North America to help Chinese miners and mining farm owners shift their mining activities overseas.
- Earlier this week, province-level governments in Xinjiang and Qinghai followed a move by Inner Mongolia’s government to shut down all crypto mining operations, leading to a drastic hashrate decline.
- Chinese miners are fleeing the country in the wake of the bans. Canaan, a major Bitcoin mining rig maker, for instance, is opening its first after-sales service center outside of mainland China in neighboring Kazakhstan.
- Tony Tong, a co-chairman and co-founder of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association, told Forkast.News that he would recommend that Chinese authorities “keep a more open mind to understand the industry,” and monitor its activities rather than chasing major players away.
- “That will only benefit the countries where these [miners] eventually land and boost the blockchain development of those nations,” Tong said, adding that BTC.com, a mining pool operated by Bitmain, had requested the association’s help to find mining farms in Canada and the U.S.