China turns up heat on cryptocurrencies with ‘elimination’ drive

NDRC and other Chinese government agencies follow central bank in issuing curbs aiming to eventually shut down trade and mining of virtual currencies

Higher power tariffs for cryptocurrency miners tie in with 2060 carbon neutrality target set by Xi Jinping

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China has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency like bitcoin, with moves to ban transactions and mining. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:41pm, 25 Sep 2021Updated: 11:15pm, 25 Sep 2021

China’s regulatory and banking authorities are banding together to wipe out cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in the country, with new measures launched to ban new investments, create a road map to end virtual currency mining, and cut off any related financial transactions.

The move redoubles efforts from the world’s second largest economy to remove deeply buried risk within its financial system and proceed with an ambitious energy-saving and emission-cuts campaign.

The National Development and Reform Commission on Friday announced it was putting cryptocurrency mining into the elimination category – which means an immediate ban on new investments, business restrictions, and a road map for their eventual shutdown.

“We must distinguish [virtual currency] mining from blockchain, big data and cloud computing industries, and guide companies to develop those with low resource consumption but high added value,” it said in a joint circular with 10 other government agencies.

This came the same day the People’s Bank of China renewed its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading and financing, warning that any foreign exchange that provided services to Chinese citizens through the internet was engaging in illegal financial activities.

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