BTC.com Withdraws from China, AntPool Suspends IP Access, & Tencent Bans 1,000 WeChat Accounts

Bitcoin mining pool BTC.com announced on Friday that it is withdrawing from the Chinese market on October 15, 2021.

It would no longer provide its mining services to users in mainland China to “comply with the latest regulatory policy requirements of the Chinese government.”

Starting today, the registration of new users in mainland China will be suspended, and mining services will be shut down. Users from China are asked to withdraw their crypto assets and complete the migration of computation power as soon as possible.

“We will reserve the right to further dispose of your account,” said BTC.com, the subsidiary of crypto mining company BIT mining Lt. (NYSE: BTCM).

Leaving China Forever

This week, mining machine manufacturer Bitmain’s crypto miner AntPool also announced that to comply with the regulations, starting October 15th, it will suspend IP access in Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan).

“ANTPOOL has no plans to establish an operating entity in mainland China,” said the miner, adding it will rebuild its new business and operating team with Singapore as its headquarters.

Additionally, it will introduce a KYC verification system for the global registered users to abide by the laws and regulations of users’ locations.

The US Gains Dominance

China’s ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining has already had a severe effect on the country’s market share in Bitcoin mining. As we reported, China’s mining share has fallen to zero, from 75% in 2019.

However, China’s loss is turning out to be the US’s gain, whose market share of Bitcoin’s global hash rate has surged to 35.4% and is now dominating. Miners ousted from China have simply moved overseas to the United States, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Canada.

“As a veteran who witnessed the industry’s birth in China, I feel the situation today is lamentable,” said Mao Shihang, founder of F2Pool, in an interview.

“China is losing its share of computing power … the industry’s center of gravity is shifting to the United States.”

No Info on Crypto

This week, Tencent Holdings Ltd. also made a move and imposed a ban on more than 1,000 WeChat accounts.

A total of 1,463 WeChat accounts were banned due to illegally publishing virtual currency and mining-related information, Tencent said in a statement on its website on Thursday. While some accounts were shut permanently, others are facing a week-long restriction.

The tech giant, which has over a billion WeChat members, said that it will “continue to strengthen its corporate responsibility and increase its crackdown on illegal financial activities such as virtual currency transactions.”