Six provinces have cleared virtual currency mining projects, and experts say it will eventually spread across the country

This article is reproduced from Huanqiu.com

Chinanews.com, July 15 (Zhang Meng) On July 14, the topic #Anhui completely shuts down virtual currency mining projects# became a hot search on Weibo. It is reported that Anhui will strictly control new high-energy and high-power consumption projects, and completely clean up and shut down virtual currency mining projects built under various names. So far, Anhui has become the sixth province in the country to clean up virtual currency mining projects.

On May 21 this year, the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council held its 51st meeting and mentioned that it would crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading activities and resolutely prevent individual risks from spreading to the social field.

Regarding why it is necessary to crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading, Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, pointed out at a briefing held by the State Council Information Office on July 8 that private digital currencies including Bitcoin and various "stablecoins" have become a speculative tool and a payment tool for some money laundering and illegal economic activities. They pose a potential threat to financial security and social stability, and may bring risks and challenges to the international monetary system, payment and clearing systems, etc.

Public reports show that virtual currency mining is generally concentrated in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, which are rich in thermal power, and Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou, which are rich in hydropower.

According to incomplete statistics, as of now, six provinces including Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and Anhui have cleaned up and shut down virtual currency mining projects.

Among them, Inner Mongolia's series of cleanup actions have attracted the most attention. On February 25, the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission issued the "Several Guarantee Measures for Ensuring the Completion of the "14th Five-Year Plan" Energy Consumption Dual Control Target Tasks (Draft for Comments)", proposing to comprehensively clean up and shut down virtual currency mining projects, and all withdraw by the end of April 2021. In addition, new virtual currency mining projects are strictly prohibited. On May 18, the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission announced the establishment of a reporting platform for virtual currency "mining" companies. On May 25, the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission proposed different crackdown and punishment strategies based on eight categories of targets.

Pan Helin, executive dean and professor of the Digital Economy Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Chinanews.com that there are two main reasons for shutting down virtual currency mining projects in various places: First, the country has defined virtual cryptocurrency and comprehensively regulated virtual currency in China, and various places have responded to the national call to regulate virtual currency mining projects. Second, various places have carbon emission tasks. Under the pressure of energy conservation and emission reduction in the future, mining consumes a lot of energy, which is not conducive to local energy conservation and emission reduction, so the withdrawal of mining has become inevitable.

Pan Helin predicts that virtual currency mining projects will be shut down nationwide in the future. Since it has been defined as illegal and cracked down on, it will eventually spread across the country.