According to reports, the Guangdong province’s Development and Reform Commission busted an illegal crypto mining farm hidden within an electric vehicle charging station. The covert crypto mining farm was found in Guangzhou, where law enforcement officials have been conducting regular inspections across cities to enforce and destroy any sort of mining operations in the region.
Over 190 crypto mining devices worth 5 million yuan ($7,91,450) were seized on the spot as part of the covert mining operation. Authorities reported that, despite the fact that mining operations require a lot of energy, they were kept hidden from authorities due to the high power consumption of the charging station where they were functioning.
The mining operations were apparently carried out behind closed doors, with a guard at the gate and gates and barriers to keep them hidden from view. The mining farm was up and running for almost 1,000 hours, consuming over 90,000 kilowatt-hours of power. After checking the energy consumption of the charging station, the authorities discovered anomalies in the electricity consumption and shut down the crypto mining operations. Similarly, in February, Jieyang City seized 916 mining machines. Last year, the Beijing government put an outright ban on crypto mining activities across the country, citing their carbon emission goals and the crypto mining companies’ excessive electricity use. As a result of the decision, the majority of mining farms and industrial crypto mining operations have closed or relocated to other countries.
Since then, authorities in many Chinese provinces have conducted state and city-level inspections to eradicate even the tiniest mining activities, including those carried out at home. Prior to the crackdown, China supplied more than 60% of the Bitcoin (BTC) network hash power, but now has almost no participation in global Bitcoin mining operations.
It’s a wrap for this story.