The southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan is reportedly set to become the target of a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining, PANews, a Chinese crypto media outlet, reported today, citing unnamed sources.
According to the PANews report, which cited anonymous sources, a notice said the provincial unit of the State Grid had identified 26 suspected mining projects that should be screened, checked and shut down by June 20.
The report said that in the notice, Sichuan authorities had instructed local governments in the province to carry out inspections immediately and close suspected mining projects as soon as they found them.
Citing sources, the report said the notice stipulated that power generation companies were to conduct internal checks and immediately stop supplying electricity to virtual currency mining projects.
Meanwhile, Chinese crypto blogger Wu Blockchain wrote today on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese microblog platform, that information was being circulated among several mining social media groups to the effect that the Sichuan government was asking power generation companies in the province to conduct internal inspections and to stop supplying power to virtual currency mining projects.
Sichuan’s reported move comes a day after PANews reported, citing an anonymous source, that authorities in the city of Ya’an, a mining hub in Sichuan, had held a meeting on Thursday and decided to carry out a crackdown on Bitcoin mining companies in the city.
BlockBeats, a Chinese crypto news website, cited sources in a Thursday report that mining farms in Ya’an needed to stop operations by June 25, and that the industry was expecting the issuance of an official document today.
The reports of a crackdown follow a recently announced campaign by Yunnan’s energy authority to end unauthorized electricity use in Bitcoin mining.
The local government of Changji Prefecture, in Xinjiang, and the governments of Qinghai and Inner Mongolia ordered miners to cease operations earlier this month.
Sichuan, which has abundant — albeit climate-dependent — hydropower resources, has been a go-to location for Chinese crypto miners during the summer, but despite its typically plentiful and sustainable electricity supplies, the latest reported moves by its authorities suggest that China is tightening the screws on the industry across the entire country.
