Chinese Ethereum Mining Pool SparkPool to Halt All Services Due to Crackdown

Ethereum mining pool SparkPool said it plans to suspend services for all its users by Sept. 30.

• Hangzhou-based SparkPool said it had initially stopped providing services to new users in China as of Sept. 24, and would completely suspend services to all its existing users, both in China and abroad, as of Sept. 30, in a message to users dated Sept. 26.
• The company said the reason was “an effort to be maximally compliant with regulatory requirements.” China tightened its crackdown on cryptocurrencies last week, declaring all cryptocurrency-related activities illegal.

• Founded in 2016, the Chinese Ethereum mining provider is the second-largest miner in terms of the hashrate on the network, behind Ethermine.
• It currently contributes around 142 TH/s, which is roughly 22% of the hashrate of the entire network, according to data from PoolWatch.
• While the State Council of China called for local authorities to crack down on crypto mining in May, Chinese miners had quietly resumed Ethereum mining operations over the last few months.
• The mining arm of crypto exchange Huobi halted its miner hosting services to its new users shortly after the ban in May. Meanwhile, Huobi said on Sunday it would stop serving existing China-based users by the end of this year following China’s latest regulatory moves.
• Following the May ban, large bitcoin miners in China, including Poolin and BIT Mining, have been on the lookout for hosting sites in other parts of the world such as North America and Central Asia.

UPDATE (Sept. 27, 15:26 UTC): Updated with tweet containing SparkPool’s announcement.

UPDATE (Sept. 27, 15:40 UTC): Added information about Huobi in sixth bullet point.