Bitcoin miners plan to move their mines abroad to Canada, Iceland and the United States

As China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies expands to include bitcoin mining farms, some of the industry’s biggest players are already moving operations overseas.

In an interview, Wu Jihan, co-founder of Bitmain, which operates the top two Bitcoin mining farms in China, said that the company is establishing a regional headquarters in Singapore and conducting mining operations in the United States and Canada. According to their respective founders, the third largest mining pool BTC.Top is opening a branch in Canada, and the fourth-ranked ViaBTC has established operations in Iceland and the United States.

Chinese policymakers, who last year halted initial coin offerings (ICOs) and asked local exchanges to halt virtual currency trading, this week proposed new proposals to curb bitcoin mining. The government plans to limit electricity use at bitcoin mining farms and ask local governments to guide bitcoin miners to exit the industry in an orderly manner, people familiar with the matter said.

While the measures are unlikely to have a significant impact on bitcoin transaction speeds, they could reshape the cryptocurrency mining industry, which until recently had flocked to China because of its low electricity prices, chip manufacturing plants and cheap labor. Now they are looking for other suitable locations.

In an interview, Jiang Zhuoer, founder of Litebit, said that he chose Canada because of its relatively low costs and stable country and policies. He also considered Iran and Russia.

Bloomberg News has previously reported that the Chinese government is looking to crack down on power abuse at bitcoin mining farms. The People’s Bank of China didn’t respond to a faxed request for comment.

Bitcoin was little changed on Friday, having risen about 5% so far in 2018 and 14 times last year.