Following China’s crackdown on domestic cryptocurrency exchanges last year, the People’s Bank of China is now seeking to curb bitcoin mining activities in the country.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the PBoC told the members of the Leading Group of Beijing Internet Financial Risks Remediation that the central bank can ask local governments to regulate the power usage of bitcoin miners, which in turn will help bring down the scale of their operation.

The PBoC cannot directly regulate the power usage by bitcoin miners. However, it can ask local governments to do so, the source said.

China is believed to be one of the major hubs for bitcoin mining – a process in which ‘miners’ solve mathematical puzzles for adding transactions to the blockchain and are rewarded new bitcoins when successful.

At the meeting held at the end of 2017, the central bank said development of bitcoin mining will be limited, the source added.