Henan police have recently cracked down on a bitcoin mining site which steals, on a daily basis, enough electricity to “supply a family of three for 40 years”, according to the estimate of the local electricity firm quoted in National Business Daily, the news portal which first broke the story.
The bitcoin mining site, which consisted of more than 1,700 mining machines, was located in an abandoned factory building in the Henan Province city of Pingdingshan.
A team of more than 20 policemen and a dozen staffers from the local electricity supplier raided the site earlier this month. 2 suspects working in the site were detained on the spot.
It’s one of the largest energy theft cases involving bitcoin mining in recent years. Several such cases have surfaced since the value of Bitcoin plunged in Dec 2017 and struggling crypto mining businesses have resorted to cost-cutting measures where they could. Current bitcoin value stands at around USD 5,156.
The Chinese government plans to designate bitcoin mining as an industry that needs to be eliminated due to its huge energy consumption.