Chinese Miners Sell Hardware Amidst Regulatory Uncertainties

It has been reported that an increasing number of Chinese bitcoin miners are liquidating their hardware via second-hand trading platforms. Many of the miners are selling their equipment due to fears that China’s cryptocurrency crackdown may be intensified to target miners.

Also Read: Chinese Media Calls For “Zero Tolerance” on Crimes Involving Cryptocurrencies

Many Listings for Undervalued Mining Hardware Have Emerged Following the Chinese Central Government’s Crackdown on Cryptocurrency Exchanges

One miner based in Wuhan is liquidating 50 motherboards at below market value via the Alibaba owned second-hand trading platform Xianyu. The listing stated the “boards were manufactured this June”, and have only been used “for two months”.

A Chinese miner has told reporters that he is selling his equipment in due to the looming threat Beijing may seek to further its crackdown on cryptocurrencies. The miner stated that he doesn’t “care about [the] bitcoin price anymore. There are too many regulat[ory] uncertainties. You know the government always adopts an interventionist approach in its economy. What if the authority one day suddenly announces that it’s illegal to hold coins? Now I just want to sell out all of my miners and ASICs. No more roller coasters in my life.”

Concerns pertaining to the threat of a Chinese crackdown on bitcoin mining are influencing the operations of industrial as well as retail mining entities. An anonymous source has alleged that Bitmain is transferring their mining operations overseas as a precautionary measure designed to evade any future regulatory hurdles that may arise in China.

Not Everyone in China Is Preparing for Regulators to Target Miners

A computer hardware retailer, Mr. Fu, told reporters that he is planning on stocking large quantities of GPUs and ASICs, expressing his expectation that the mining industry will continue to grow in future.

Chinese media outlet Caixin recently published an article that refutes the concerns pertaining to the Chinese government extending its cryptocurrency crackdown to target mining. The publication asserts that an anonymous source who is “close to regulators” have claimed the fears regarding a government attack on miners is “false.”

According to Caixin, an operator of a mining has stressed the benefits reaped by bitcoin mining to the Chinese economy as a deterrent against excessive regulatory interference. The source is cited as depicting bitcoin mining as a nascent boom export industry, stating that “domestic [miners]… mostly export to foreign countries, earn[ing] foreign [currency” that has “to come back into the yuan.”

Do you think that China’s bitcoin miners will be subject to further will continue to operate free from regulatory interference? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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