F2Pool bans Chinese Bitcoin miners as crypto clampdown intensifies

F2Pool, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, has started banning Bitcoin miners from mainland China.

According to local crypto media outlet 8BTCnews, Chinese customers will either have their accounts suspended or terminated moving forward.

The decision of the mining pool is clearly linked to China’s renewed efforts to crush cryptocurrency mining and trading. Following months of trying to stifle the sector’s growth by cutting power supply to mining facilities and shutting down crypto businesses, the People's Bank of China declared last week that all business activities related to cryptocurrencies are illegal.

Founded in 2013, F2Pool is the oldest Bitcoin mining pool. It is also the biggest BTC mining pool, with a share of 20.98% of the global hash rate.

Industry observers claim that this is so far the government’s harshest crypto ban to date. Since the announcement was made, several crypto businesses have moved to shut down or limit their operations in China. On Sunday, crypto exchange Huobi announced that its users in mainland China would be “gradually retired” by the end of the year. Similarly, one of the world’s leading Ethereum mining pools, Sparkpool, has terminated its local and international Ethereum mining pool services after announcing last week that it was halting services for Chinese customers.