The second largest Ethereum mining pool will suspend all operations

As of Monday, SparkPool, which was launched in China in 2018, controlled more than 22% of Ethereum’s hashrate, second only to Ethermine. The mining pool officially announced on Monday that it had suspended access to new users in mainland China in response to new policies by Chinese authorities targeting cryptocurrency adoption in the country.
Sparkpool, the world’s second-largest Ethereum mining pool, is currently suspending operations due to China’s ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
The mining pool officially announced on Monday that it has suspended access for new users from mainland China in response to new policies from Chinese authorities targeting cryptocurrency adoption in the country.
Following the initial restrictions made last Friday, Sparkpool will continue to shut down services and plans to suspend existing mining pool users in China and abroad on Thursday.
According to the announcement, these measures are intended to ensure the safety of users’ assets in response to “regulatory policy requirements.” “Further details on the closure of services will be issued via announcements, emails, and in-site messages,” Sparkpool noted.
SparkPool was launched in China in early 2018 and has become one of the largest ETH mining pools in the world, second only to Ethermine. According to Poolwatch.io, as of the time of writing, SparkPool's computing power accounts for 22% of Ethereum's global computing power, slightly lower than Ethermine's 24%.
The news comes as the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrencies, declaring all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal in the country on Friday. Some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance and Huobi, subsequently suspended new account registrations from mainland China, although they are said to still be providing services to users in Hong Kong.
SparkPool did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
SparkPool's closure comes as Ethereum continues to transition from a PoW consensus mechanism to a PoS model in 2022, part of a long-term upgrade plan known as Ethereum 2.0. As Cointelegraph previously reported, after Ethereum 2.0 finally arrives, Ethereum miners will not have much choice as their mining equipment will be obsolete. (Cointelegraph)