Crypto exchanges, Huobi and Binance, have banned new customers from mainland China due to legislation.
Bitcoin fell late last week after China shared the message that corporate crypto transactions have been banned. Since that ominous relay, major crypto exchanges, Huobi and Binance, have announced that they will no longer create new accounts for Chinese customers.
Huobi Blocks New Chinese Users
The threatening tone is a hard blow for the Chinese stock, Huobi, who claim they are being forced to suspend the registration of new users from China. China has already provided quite a bit of FUD in this bull run, just like during the previous bull runs.
In May, it was announced that bitcoin mining was banned and now the trade is being tackled. The message from the Chinese central bank also stated that certain exchange activities were banned.
Comply with the Chinese Ban
In order to comply with China’s latest regulatory measures against crypto activity, the exchange has prevented users from opening new accounts with mobile numbers originating from mainland China.
In addition, there are plans to ban existing users from access to the platform by the end of the year.
Huobi explains:
“In order to comply with local laws and regulations, Huobi Global has stopped account registration for new users in mainland China.
“Huobi Global will phase out existing user accounts in mainland China on December 31, 2021 at midnight and ensure the security of users’ assets.”
The term ‘mainland China’ refers to all areas of China except Hong Kong, Macau and a few more. So this is not so much a geographical term, but rather a political divide.
Huobi added that it blocked existing Chinese users from trading derivatives earlier in June.
Binance not working in China
Binance works a little differently, new users don’t have to specify their region when they create an account. Still, Binance told Bloomberg that they are not active in China and are blocking Chinese IP addresses.
“Binance takes its compliance obligations very seriously and is committed to following local legal requirements wherever we operate.”
Huobi and Binance therefore do not accept new users from mainland China, but from the other Chinese territories.
OKEx is another Chinese exchange, and it still accepts new Chinese customers as at press time.
Investors Turn to Green Fuel
Mining Company buys Fossil Fuel Power Plant
US Bitcoin miner, Stronghold Digital, has taken the energy supply of its crypto businesses into its own hands – with its own fossil fuel power plant.
Pennsylvania-based crypto company, Stronghold Digital Mining, has bought an old power plant, according to Techspot.com. There it burns toxic coal waste to generate electricity for the in-house Bitcoin production. The company describes itself as environmentally friendly.
The scrubgrass power plant was considered financially troubled and currently provides electricity for 1,800 mining rigs that Stronghold has set up in shipping containers right next to the plant.
By 2022, the company wants to ramp up electricity production to the point where enough energy is available for 20,000 mining stations.
The fuel from the power plant is a particularly environmentally harmful residue from coal mining. These are polluted with various pollutants and contaminate the earth as well as the air and groundwater in former mining areas.
Stronghold collects the coal waste from surrounding regions and thus frees formerly contaminated areas from the harmful material. The ashes from the incineration are used as fertilizer to restore the flora in the areas.
Local Environmental Protection, but High CO2 Emissions
In this endeavor, the company works with the local authority for environmental protection and has already cleared around 1,000 hectares of land for production.
Despite the locally positive effects on the environment, the burning of coal waste produces enormous amounts of CO2 and thus damages the global climate.
In doing so, Stronghold Digital Mining is undermining the mining industry’s recent ambitions to reduce its ecological footprint. The production of cryptocurrencies has been criticized for some time because of its miserable ecological balance.
In May 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk significantly shook the the price of Bitcoin by publicly expressed criticism of its energy consumption. It was also Musk who initiated the founding of the Bitcoin Mining Council, an association of crypto companies that have jointly committed to a sustainable transformation of the industry.
A farmer in Great Britain recently showed that crypto mining can also be more sustainable. He mines Ethereum with cow dung.