Hydropower plants go on sale in China amid mining crackdown and bitcoin slump

After cryptocurrency mining rig sales, small hydropower stations are now for sale on e-commerce site Xianyu

Prices of small hydropower stations have dropped amid crackdown, as bitcoin miners head for the exits in China

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The Baihetan hydropower plant is seen in operation on the border between Qiaojia county of Yunnan province and Ningnan county of Sichuan province, China. Picture taken with a drone. Photo: cnsphoto via Reuters

Published: 2:00am, 29 Jun 2021Updated: 3:17am, 29 Jun 2021

China’s swift and sweeping crackdown on bitcoin mining has pushed owners of small hydroelectric power plants to offload their assets now that demand for cheap power is drying up.

The number of advertisements on Xianyu, a popular second-hand e-commerce platform, for small scale hydro plants with capacity of around 50 megawatts, has increased since the mining crackdown began in May.

Some plants are in southwestern Sichuan province, an area in China with abundant water resources that can provide cheap electricity and where 26 bitcoin mining operations were ordered to shut down last week.

“You can secretly mine cryptocurrency if you buy a hydropower station,” promised one of the sellers on the Alibaba Group Holding-owned platform, when contacted by a South China Morning Post reporter. Alibaba also owns the SCMP.

Two sellers who responded to inquiries said their listings were unrelated to the recent crackdown.

Second-hand marketplaces have seen an increase in small-scale hydroelectric plants. The seller of this plant, however, says that it is not involved in mining cryptocurrencies. Photo: Screenshot from Xianyu

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