A day after the second-largest Ethereum mining pool in the world, SparkPool, announced it was shutting down, the fourth-largest mining pool is following suit. China-based BeePool has announced it will shut down on October 15.

Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain is planning to suspend sales of its machines to miners in mainland China following the country’s latest cryptocurrency ban.

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will have to pay $1.25 million to settle charges with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC went after Kraken as it was offering margined digital asset trading services without registering as a futures commodity merchant with regulators.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Second Major Ethereum Mining Pool Shuts Down
• Crypto Mining Hardware Maker Bitmain to Halt Sales in China
• Kraken to Pay CFTC $1.25 Million to Settle Charges
• What Is Merged Mining?
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Second Major Ethereum Mining Pool Shuts Down

A day after the second-largest Ethereum mining pool in the world, SparkPool, announced it was shutting down, the fourth-largest mining pool is following suit. China-based BeePool has announced it will shut down on October 15.

BeePool has already halted new registrations and said the close came “in response to the latest regulatory policies.” Data from Ethereum block explorer shows that both mining pools are responsible for over one-quarter of all the Ethereum being mined.

The shutdown of both mining pools comes amid a renewed crackdown on cryptocurrencies by Chinese authorities. Last week, the country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued a notice saying any activity involving cryptoassets was against the law.

Since then, major cryptocurrency exchanges stopped registering mainland Chinese residents and leading e-commerce platform Alibaba stopped selling customized cryptocurrency mining equipment.

Crypto Mining Hardware Maker Bitmain to Halt Sales in China

Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain is planning to suspend sales of its machines to miners in mainland China following the country’s latest cryptocurrency ban.

The company is also reportedly moving the majority of its production out of southern China and into other countries to comply with the latest mandates from the PBoC. Founded in 2013, Bitmain was one of the earliest manufacturing companies to make application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to mine cryptocurrencies.

It has since grown and is currently one of the largest cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturers in the world. In July it completed a year-long process to spin off its mining pool services unit to Antpool while preparing for an initial public offering.

Kraken to Pay CFTC $1.25 Million to Settle Charges

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will have to pay $1.25 million to settle charges with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The CFTC went after Kraken as it was offering margined digital asset trading services without registering as a futures commodity merchant with regulators.

The CFTC found Kraken violated the Commodities Exchange Act with the offering, as entities looking to list or trade futures products must register as a futures commodities merchant with the CFTC, or as a Designated Contract Maker to offer futures products.

The regulator said:

“During the relevant period, Kraken offered potential and existing U.S. customers the ability to enter into margined retail commodity transactions on its Exchange. Margined trading was available to any U.S. person who Kraken approved for a user account.”

Kraken will now have to pay the $1.25 million fine and cease offering this type of margin to U.S. persons.

What Is Merged Mining?

Merged Mining is a process that enables cryptocurrency miners to mine two or more blockchain networks simultaneously; this allows them to compete for, and claim, separate block rewards without sacrificing their overall mining performance.

Whilst this method of mining is not as well known as others, it has historically been used by some very well-known projects, such as Litecoin and Namecoin, to piggyback onto larger blockchains that tend to be more active and secure.

This creates exposure for the network in question and provides additional security as more miners are incentivized to secure the network due to the additional block rewards.

CryptoCompare has a guide to help you better understand merged mining. Check it out.

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