In China’s Inner Mongolia, the local government agency has required a local electricity trade company to disqualify 21 bitcoin mining farms from participating in energy trading. Local crypto news platform Wu Blockchain first reported the document, but it did not provide the names of the bitcoin mining farms on the list. Notable entities include two subsidiaries of bitcoin mining giant Bitmain in Inner Mongolia and another subsidiary of mining equipment manufacturer Ebang.
Bitcoin mining farms will no longer enjoy electricity discounts in the region.
The local government’s suspension means that these mining farms will no longer be able to enjoy electricity discounts that come from a liquid energy marketplace provided by the Inner Mongolia Power Group, a state-owned energy trading firm in the region. The CEO and co-founder of China-based mining pool PoolIn, Kevin Pan, said the policy would impact the industry, at least in the short term. The electricity for these farms will likely rise by 0.1 yuan, or $0.014, per kilowatt-hour (kWh), he revealed.
The current electricity cost for bitcoin mining farms in the region is around 0.26–0.28 yuan per kWh ($0.037 to $0.040). With the new policy change, the upper side of the range could reach as high as 0.38 yuan per kWh ($0.054), according to the CEO.
Regulators in China’s Sichuan also called for shut down of mining activities.
Earlier this year, regulators in China’s Sichuan region have sent a notice to all crypto businesses within their jurisdiction end to all mining and mining-related activities in an orderly manner. Municipal administrators and subordinate offices in the region have also been directed to “guide” miners to shut down their operations “in an orderly manner.” China is responsible for more than half of bitcoin’s hashpower that is generated all around the world. According to the Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index compiled by Cambridge University, China is responsible for over 65% of the global bitcoin mining computing power as of April this year.
