Spark Pool allows balance withdrawal as it phases out all domestic, international users

Mining pool Spark Pool, which was once a major Ethereum mining pool, says its users may withdraw existing balances, but beginning Nov. 1 it will no longer offer other services related to mining for both domestic and international users, the company said in a statement.

Fast facts

• Spark Pool last month reacted swiftly to China’s stepped-up ban on crypto mining. It said last month that it will shut down all its services and operations for users in China and abroad to be compliant with regulatory requirements.
• Spark Pool said it “firmly supports the national policy and is closing down mining related business in an orderly and stable manner.”

• The mining pool said it has hired professional legal advisors to deal with matters such as staff rearrangement.

• China has been clamping down on the crypto mining industry since earlier this year, with the most recent bans being imposed in Jiangsu, Hebei and Gansu provinces, followed by similar clampdowns in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Yunnan and Sichuan.

• As a result, the United States has overtaken China’s leading position in cryptocurrency mining, according to data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). Michel Rauchs, digital assets lead at the CCAF, wrote that “declared mining operations in mainland China have effectively dropped to zero, from a high of 75.53% of the world’s total Bitcoin mining in September 2019 when this data was first recorded.”