Inner Mongolia Steps up Crack Down on Cryptocurrency Mining with Specialised Reporting Platform

964

The Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia has stepped up efforts to stamp out cryptocurrency mining within its borders.

Inner Mongolia’s Development and Reform Commission announced on 18 May that it had established a specialised platform dedicated to handling any tip offs in relation to cryptocurrency mining activities.

The scope of the tip offs will include:

  • Cryptocurrency mining companies (including multiple types of “hidden” cryptocurrency companies and actors);
  • Cryptocurrency mining companies that are disguised as data centres in order to enjoy preferential policies in relation to taxes, land and utilities;
  • Enterprises that provide land leasing and other services to cryptocurrency mining companies;
  • The use of illegal methods to obtain power supplies to engage in cryptocurrency activities.

In March of this year Inner Mongolia’s Development and Reform Commission announced in its “Several Guarantee Measures for Ensuring the Completion of the Two Energy Consumption Targets of the 14th Five Year plan” (关于确保完成“十四五”能耗双控目标任务若干保障措施) that it would “comprehensively clean up and shut down cryptocurrency mining projects,” as part of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The authority set the goal of terminating all such activities by the end of April, as well as placed a strict ban on the development of new cryptocurrency projects.

The latest move from the Inner Mongolian government comes just after peak Chinese industry bodies launched a ban on domestic financial institutions providing any services or transactions in relation to cryptocurrency, contributing to a global plunge in the price of Bitcoin.

Chinese authorities are also pushing to satisfy ambitious new emissions reduction goals set by Beijing in 2020, which include achieving peak carbon before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.