(Yicai Global) May 26 -- The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China has intensified its clamp down on cryptocurrency miners taking advantage of the northern region’s cheap electricity prices to bring in new rules that could be the final straw for many miners following China’s warnings last week that it will not tolerate such virtual currencies.

The Inner Mongolia government will revoke the business licenses of telecommunications and internet companies if they are found to be engaged in cryptocurrency mining, it said today. In March the region had already threatened to drive out all crypto mining projects, largely due to the huge strain they put on its power supply.

Many large mines in the area are likely to be shut down soon, industry insiders said. They will be hard hit by the new policies which will make it difficult for them to continue. Smaller operations might still be able to survive.

This could be the beginning of a nationwide government crackdown, another person said.

However, shutting down the crypto farms could be easier said than done, one industry insider said. Many people own dozens of machines and they could choose to operate from home instead.

Miners could also shift their equipment to other areas with sufficient electrical power, such as southwestern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, the insiders said. The enormous power consumption by these mines is a huge source of income for hydropower stations in these remote areas.

China accounts for 75 percent of the world’s Bitcoin mining activities. But the government has long disapproved of cryptocurrencies, saying that they have no real value and their price can be manipulated, and outlawed all such trading back in 2017. This intolerance escalated on May 21 when the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council called for a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading to rein in risks.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor