China Will No Longer Ban Crypto Mining Industry

China Will No Longer Ban Crypto Mining Industry

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) was considering restricting or eliminating the crypto mining industry sometime in April 2019. However, the latest guidance from NDRC no longer mentions crypto mining.

Reuters reported that the NDRC had announced on April 8th that it was “seeking public opinions on a revised list of industries it wants to encourage, restrict or eliminate”; this list, which is known as “Guiding Catalogue for the Adjustment of Industrial Structure”, has been issued since 2005.

Guiding Catalogue is “a document supplementary” to the “Interim Regulation on Promoting the Adjustment of Industrial Structure”. On it’s first issue, it covered “more than 20 industries that include agriculture, water conservancy, coal, power, transportation, information industry, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemical industry, building materials, machinery, light and textile industries, service industry, environmental and ecological protection, conservation and comprehensive use of resources, and etc,” and in total, there were “539 articles in the encouraged category, 190 in the restricted category and 399 in the to-be-eliminated category.”

According to Reuters, the draft version of the Guiding Catalogue had added cryptocurrency mining to the “over 450 activities the NDRC said should be phased out as they did not adhere to relevant laws and regulations, were unsafe, wasted resources or polluted the environment.” The document “did not stipulate a target date or plan for how to eliminate bitcoin mining, meaning that such activities should be phased out immediately.” Until May 7th, it was possible for the public to submit their comments on the proposed changes to the list.

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