The Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission has reportedly arrested an illegal crypto mining farm that was secretly operating out of an electric vehicle charging station.
The secret crypto mining farm was dismantled in the city of Guangzhou, where law enforcement agencies have been constantly conducting city inspections to enforce and eradicate any form of mining operations in the region, a local publication reported.
The covert mining operation used more than 190 crypto mining machines worth an estimated 5 million yuan ($7,91,450), which were seized on the spot. Authorities claimed that although the mining operations consume a lot of energy, they remained hidden from the authorities due to the high energy consumption of the charging station in which they were operating.
According to reports, mining operations were carried out in a closed-door location with a guard at the gate along with fences and walls to hide him from view. The mining farm was operational for more than 1,000 hours and consumed more than 90,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Related: China’s Share Of Bitcoin Transactions Dropped 80% After Crackdown: PBoC
Authorities arrested the crypto mining operations after examining the power consumption of the charging station which revealed discrepancies in electricity consumption. Similarly, the city of Jieyang seized 916 mining machines in February.
The Beijing government issued an outright ban on crypto mining operations across the country last year, citing its carbon emission targets and high electricity consumption by crypto mining operations. The decision prompted most mining farms and industrial crypto mining operations to close or migrate to other nations.
Since then, authorities in several Chinese provinces have carried out inspections at the state and municipal levels to weed out even the smallest, including home-based mining operations. China, which contributed more than 60% of the Bitcoin (BTC) network’s hash power before the crackdown, currently has almost zero shares in global Bitcoin mining operations.
This post Chinese Police Dismantle Illegal Crypto Mining Farm, Seize 190 Miners
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