In news out earlier today, China mentioned that they will be making life more difficult for bitcoin miners in the region.
They are not going to ban bitcoin miners per say, just make life a lot more difficult for them.
Currently, Chinese bitcoin miners have enjoyed quite an advantage over other parts of the world due to the large electricity subsidies available in the region.
Especially among the hydroelectric and coal produced electricity.
Bitcoin miners have been taking advantage of this cheaper electricity for years.
However, now that looks like it might all be coming to an end.
The full news release can be read here:
(Source: http://fortune.com/2018/01/08/cryptocurrency-markets-tank-china/ )
What does this mean?
On first thought this news might sound bad, terrible in fact, considering that the majority of bitcoin mining takes place in that region.
The price reaction seen across the markets might help reinforce those beliefs.
However, in the long run, this is probably actually good news.
Miners in the region were enjoying an "unfair" advantage compared to most of the rest of the world. Basically no one else on the planet could mine bitcoin as cheaply as Chinese miners could.
Another important factor to consider is how mining was especially concentrated in that region.
A region that was not very transparent to the say the least.
If miners are forced to mine from all over the world it only helps with the decentralization of bitcoin. It would also likely squeeze the mining profit margin which would probably be a good thing for bitcoin prices.
The price drop across the board in cryptocurrencies wasn't solely related to China.
CoinMarketCap decided to remove a number of Korean cryptocurrency exchanges from their pricing indexes because the prices of coins on those exchanges were increasingly diverging from other parts of the world.
The "delisting" was done around midnight EST and distorted the price drops on many charts.
As people woke up and saw what looked like a large price swing, they assumed something terrible was going on and hit the sell button.
Which only exacerbated the move.
Since that time CoinMarketCap has announced what happened, and prices across the board have rebounded significantly off the lows.
Stay informed my friends.
Image Sources:
http://marketmadhouse.com/cryptocurrencys-crazy-prices-ethereum-surging/
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