BitDeer, one of China’s biggest crypto mining operators, late last night blocked access to its platform by anyone using a mainland Chinese IP address. Its blocking measure comes on the heels of a government clampdown on mining, and other companies in the industry have begun following the BitDeer’s move.
Fast Facts:
- BitDeer Group posted a statement on its website Wednesday, saying it will “block all access to users with mainland Chinese IP addresses, starting from May 26 at 10 p.m. Beijing time,” in order to “cooperate with the regulatory requirements in related countries and regions, and support compliance in the mining industry.”
- BitDeer is not the only crypto mining firm withdrawing services to mainland Chinese users. On Monday, Jiang Zhuoer, chief executive of BTC.top, one of the biggest mining pools in China, announced that it would no longer provide joint mining services to those users, and other miners — including BitFuFu, a miner part-owned by Bitmain, and Mcoulds, an operator in which OKEx holds a stake — have followed suit, suspending some or all of their services to China-based users.
- BitDeer, which was spun off from Chinese mining rig maker Bitmain after a power struggle between Bitmain’s two co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan, has expanded its overseas operations in recent years. It operates a 50-megawatt crypto mining farm in Norway, to which it is adding a 300 MW farm currently under construction, and it runs a 200 MW farm in the U.S.