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Cryptocurrency
TechPolicy

China puts cryptocurrency mining on industrial blacklist in final step to eliminate the activity

  • The National Development and Reform Commission has added cryptocurrency mining to a list of industries that China wants to abolish
  • This action could hammer the final nail in the coffin of cryptocurrency mining activities in China

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China’s National Development and Reform Commission had added the mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to a list of industrial activities that the country wants to eliminate. Photo: Shutterstock
Coco Feng
China’s top economic planner is seeking to eliminate cryptocurrency mining activity in the country, months after a government crackdown that turned dozens of companies from model energy consumers into pariahs in the world’s second-largest economy.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Thursday added mining of bitcoin and other digital tokens to a blacklist of industrial activities that must be abandoned, as the country pushes to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

It was the sole revision made by the NDRC in its review of the country’s latest Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalogue, which took effect in January last year. The catalogue divides domestic industries into three categories: those that should be encouraged, restricted and eliminated.

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The agency is soliciting public opinion on the revision through November 21.

Other activities on China’s industrial blacklist include manufacturing disposable dinnerware made of plastic foam and disposable cotton bud made of plastic, as well as coal mining at nature reserves, tourist attractions or protected drinking water source zones.

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A technician inspects bitcoin mining machines at a facility in Inner Mongolia on August 11, 2017. Before Beijing’s crackdown earlier this year, China accounted for two-thirds of global bitcoin mining activity. Photo: Bloomberg
A technician inspects bitcoin mining machines at a facility in Inner Mongolia on August 11, 2017. Before Beijing’s crackdown earlier this year, China accounted for two-thirds of global bitcoin mining activity. Photo: Bloomberg
The NDRC’s action could hammer the final nail in the coffin of cryptocurrency mining in China, following a months-long campaign that prompted these power-intensive mining enterprises to hastily flee the country and relocate overseas such as in North America and Central Asia.
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