PBoC refutes reports on shutting down of bitcoin mining

Friday, January 5, 2018 9:46 AM UTC

The People’s Bank of China has refuted recent reports that suggested that the central bank was seeking to curb bitcoin mining activities in the country.

Caixin reports that the PBoC did not hold any meeting on shutting down bitcoin mining activities. Previous reports suggested that the meeting supposedly took place on January 03.

Caixin: PBoC did not hold a closed-door meeting, nor are they asking to shut down mining fields before a "deadline". However, the regulators are indeed gradually canceling the preferential policies offered previously in electricity fees, taxes and land to some mining facilities
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) January 4, 2018

A source familiar with the matter told the local media outlet that there are, however, plans to withdraw the preferential policies on electricity prices, taxes, and land.

This would essentially mean that the authorities are having a somewhat neutral stance on bitcoin activity – the government is neither looking to boost nor curb such activities.

However, mining facility operators in Sichuan province told Tencent that there have been on-site visits by authorities to check business registration documents and electricity consumption, Bitsonline reported.

Last September, Chinese regulators imposed a ban on all activities relating to initial coin offering (ICO). In addition, they also ordered domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to cease trading, stating “All trading exchanges must by midnight of Sept. 15 publish a notice to make clear when they will stop all cryptocurrency trading and announce a stop to new user registrations.”