China Takes Down Illicit Crypto Mining Operation

Is China suddenly withdrawing the legality of cryptocurrency mining?

China Takes a Stab At a Mining Operation

Recently, the country – which has held a rather negative attitude towards bitcoin and digital currency – announced that the process of mining and extracting new digital coins was legal. China had been engaged in a hot debate over the legality of crypto mining given that it was allegedly causing irreparable damage to the environment. However, after several months of going back and forth, regulators decided that the process of crypto mining was permissible.

Now, however, more than 7,000 mining machines have been confiscated by local police who have been looking to infiltrate specific mining rings since April of 2018. The consensus is that these machines were being utilized to mine cryptocurrencies through illicitly garnered mining power. The machines were taken and all involved were held in custody due to “questionable electricity use.”

While crypto mining is legal in…