China Crypto Ban: Authorities to Hike Power Prices for companies disobeying Crypto Mining Ban

Amid the ongoing crypto ban in China, the authorities are isolating specific categories of companies to clamp down on any crypto operations taking place in the nation, and this time around the Chinese regulators have targeted their own, state-owned entities. The government has warned the enterprises to quit cryptocurrency mining and could potentially impose a hike in electricity prices on companies that continue to disobey the Chinese Crypto Ban.

NDRC “Unsustainable” argument against Crypto Mining

Meng Wei, a spokeswoman for the nation’s chief economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) confirmed that the commission will soon begin working towards the closure of industrial-scale Bitcoin mining activities along with cracking-down state companies that have participated in the same. Meng Wei emphasized crypto mining’s unsustainable nature, noting that it “consumes lots of energy” and “produces lots of carbon emissions.” The authorities have levied crypto mining as an “extremely harmful” practice, which threatens to jeopardize China’s Carbon Neutral ambitions.

Additionally, last week, the NDRC called for a special meeting to discuss the issues of crypto ban defiance by provinces and municipalities, and further investigate and shut down State-owned enterprises indulged in crypto mining. Given China’s anti-crypto stance, it was unsurprising when the officials accused crypto mining and trade of deliberately creating “prominent risks,” and called the industry “blind and disorderly.”

Chinese Crypto Mining Ban History

Despite the hard-hitting ban on crypto businesses in China, the country continues to see Bitcoin trades nearing record highs. Last month, the Beijing authorities issued new guidelines regarding the country’s crypto ban, including the highly intrusive tracking of the IP address of citizens to check whether or not they were mining crypto. Followed by that, the authorities in Zhejiang province also reportedly began investigating government employees and their illegal use of public places to mine cryptocurrencies. The government then issued an official warning, noting that virtual currencies consume an eminent amount of energy. However, despite the crypto ban the energy consumption did not reduce, which further led to the launch of a joint rectification program.

“In order to thoroughly implement the national work deployment on rectification of virtual currency mining and trading hype issues, orderly promote carbon peaking and carbon neutralization, and prevent and resolve risks in key areas, our province has recently launched a joint special rectification action to comprehensively combat the use of public Resources participate in virtual currency mining and trading activities.”