Mining Machine Manufacturer Bitmain to Suspend Operations in China

Bitmain, a China-based Bitcoin mining company, is planning to stop all operations in mainland China after the recent amplification of restrictions on crypto activity in the country.

While the sources have demanded to remain anonymous since they’re not certified to disseminate the above information formally, it is said that the company will shift its operations to Southern China and some other neighboring countries. Among the three sources, two were in charge of purchasing machines at major mining pools. The third source had worked substantially with Chinese miners.

To abide by the latest mandates on crypto issued by the Central bank of China, Bitmain will relocate its production out of Shenzhen.

There has been similar news on many indigenous crypto firms shifting or shutting their operations due to the recent stance of the Chinese government on any kind of crypto activity. SparkPool, another Chinese Ethereum mining pool operator, has announced a shutdown on all its services at home and abroad by the end of this month. The company, which is the second-largest contributor to the Ethereum network, has taken the step to safeguard the crypto assets stored by Chinese users on its servers.

Around eighteen crypto platforms have declared an immediate halt on all their operations and have become inaccessible. Alibaba, the Chinese multinational technology giant, that had become a famous marketplace for the sale of mining machines has also declared a suspension on these activities from 8th October.

Bitmain was established in 2013 as one of the pioneer manufacturing companies to create an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). ASICs have allowed miners to level up their mining operations and have heightened mining difficulty drastically. Bitmain has assigned Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) as its supplier of computer chips.

Bitmain spin off its mining pool services unit Antpool to make it ready for an Initial Public Offering in July. Canaan, another popular China-based crypto mining machine maker, went public on Nasdaq in November 2019.

While the speculations about this shift of operations are rife, Bitmain remains unavailable for any official statement.

On Tuesday, crypto users in China woke up to realize that the crypto data sites CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap had been banned by the Chinese censorship agency. While the users can still access the sites through virtual private networks (VPNs), the ongoing fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) situation has led many Chinese users to give up or shift to more secure networks to carry out their crypto operations.