China’s government is pushing ahead with its plans to clamp down on the crypto market. Recently, bitcoin received another punch as the authorities in China's northwestern province of Qinghai and a district in neighbouring Xinjiang issued bans on crypto mining.
Trying to win favor with the ruling Communist party, regional governments are now putting into practice Beijing’s policy. Its goal is to tighten controls over the crypto industry. The Qinghai office of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially prohibited launching new crypto mining projects in the province, and ordered existing ones to wind up. This directive was posted on the Ministry’s website.
The Development & Reform Commission of Xinjiang's Changji Hui Prefecture quickly followed suit, sending out a notice to the national Zhundong Economic-Technological Development Park. Notably, Xinjiang has the biggest bitcoin mining facilities in China, accounting for about a third of the whole domestic computing power. Qinghai is ranked nine in China’s crypto industry. The ban comes as no surprise. Beijing toughened its stance on the crypto market and cracked down on domestic mining farms and crypto exchanges. Two crypto mining companies, BTC.TOP and HashCow, have already terminated their activities. China’s rhetoric has dealt a heavy blow to bitcoin’s value. Analysts warn that the most popular digital currency could tumble nearly twice to about $20,000 per token.