Second-Largest Ethereum Miner Shuts Down Operations

China’s enhanced crackdown on crypto has forced the world’s second-largest Ethereum ETH/USD mining pool to suspend operations.

What Happened: Sparkpool, the second-largest Ethereum mining pool by hash rate, announced Monday it would be suspending all services in an effort to comply with regulatory requirements.

The Hangzhou-based mining pool had already suspended mining services for new China-based miners as of Friday but now plans to extend its ban to existing customers, both in China and abroad.

Sparkpool has a network hash rate of 117 TH/s according to data from PoolWatch.io. The mining pool’s hash rate accounted for 17.7% of the overall Ethereum network hash rate, already down considerably from 12 hours prior when it accounted for 22%.

According to an announcement on the Chinese platform WeChat, the measures were intended to ensure the safety of users’ assets in response to regulatory policy requirements.

“Further details about the shutdown will be sent out through announcements, emails, and in-site messages,” Sparkpool noted.

Last week, Chinese authorities put out another notice declaring all crypto-related activities illegal and sent crypto prices crashing. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), the leading digital asset, hit a low of $40,900 before recovering to $44,000.

BTC, ETH Price Action: Bitcoin is down 4.09% at $41,605.80 midday Tuesday, while Ethereum is down 6.35% at $2,864.

Photo: Nana Dua on Unsplash.