Alibaba to ban the sale of crypto mining equipment from October

China has increased its crackdown on crypto-related activities, and this has resulted in users finding it hard to access cryptocurrency services in the country

Alibaba, one of the leading e-commerce platforms in the world, has announced that it will ban the sale of cryptocurrency miners on its platform starting in October. The company announced this latest development via a blog post yesterday.

According to the company, the recent announcement from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is the reason why it is blocking the sale of crypto mining equipment on its platforms. Alibaba said after carefully evaluating the laws and regulations on cryptocurrencies and relevant products in China and other international markets, it would ban the sale of virtual currency miners on its platforms starting 8 October.

Furthermore, Alibaba will block the sales of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), BeaoCoin, QuarkCoin and Ethereum (ETH) on its platforms. Alibaba will also ban the sales of tutorials, strategies and software that teaches people how to buy or mine cryptocurrencies.

Following this decision, Alibaba said it would be closing two categories on its platform. These are the Blockchain Miners and Blockchain Miner Accessories subcategories in the Blockchain Miners category of Consumer Electronics.

China has come down hard on cryptocurrencies in recent months. Earlier this year, Anhui and Sichuan provinces banned cryptocurrency mining activities, forcing crypto miners in China to relocate to other countries, including Kazakhstan and North America.

The PBoC came out last week to announce that dealing in any type of cryptocurrency transaction is illegal in China. This has led some companies to shut down their services in the Asian country.

Leading crypto exchange Huobi announced a few days ago that it would be closing accounts belonging to mainland China users. Sparkpool, one of the leading Ethereum miners in China, also announced that it is closing all Chinese accounts on its platform. Therefore, Chinese users will find it almost impossible to gain access to cryptocurrency services due to the many sanctions put in place by the authorities.