The prices of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD and Dogecoin DOGE/USD continued to tumble early Tuesday following China’s latest warning to state-owned companies to stay away from cryptocurrency mining, the energy-consuming process by which cryptocurrency tokens are produced.
What Happened: China’s National Development and Reform Commission said it plans to crack down on industrial-scale Bitcoin mining as well as any involvement by state companies in the activity, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The NDRC may impose punitive measures in the form of high power prices on companies that defy a government ban and continue to engage in industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining, as per the report.
Bitcoin is down almost 7.4% during the past 24 hours, trading at $60,938.74 at press time. Ethereum is down 8.3% over the past 24 hours to $4321.48 and Dogecoin traded almost 6.7% lower over the 24-hour period at $0.2450.
See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC)
Why It Matters: The latest warning highlights Beijing’s intensified crackdown on cryptocurrencies in China this year.
In September this year, the Chinese government reiterated that it would crack down on all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies and issued a countrywide-ban on cryptocurrency mining.
One of the reasons for the intensified crackdown was worries about China’s power supplies for the upcoming winter season.
China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA subsequently announced that it would stop selling cryptocurrency mining equipment on its platforms from October.
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