Hong Kong to Regulate Crypto Mining as China Mulls Outright Ban

Here’s something interesting, according to the Harbour Times, Hong Kong is set to restrict crypto mining:

Hong Kong has moved to regulate cryptocurrency mining, the computing process that generates cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, with regulators attracted to the industry by the massive amounts of money it has generated.

The sale of mining equipment and any other products and equipment necessary to mine for virtual assets should be regulated under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO), according to a written response published by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury James Lau on April 3.

Under the TDO, cryptocurrency mining could be judged as an “unfair practice,” complete with either a HKD500,000 fine or a five-year prison sentence.

When these rules come into effect is unclear, what we do know though is that Lau’s comments came nearly a week before China’s macroeconomic planning agency – the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – added cryptocurrency mining to a list of sectors it planned to “eliminate.”

The NDRC called virtual asset mining an “undesirable” industry, saying that it “lacked safe production conditions, seriously wasted resources, polluted the environment,” and other sorts of problems. The agency did not provide a proposed date for the ban, in fact their fielding responses to it at the moment, but the Harbour Times says that the order could come in as soon as May.

Photo: Public Domain