BTC Miner Bitmain Fined $3.6M in China: Report

Bitman Technologies, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm based in Beijing, China, has reportedly been fined $25 million yuan ( $3.6 million) by local tax authorities. Local news outlet Sina Finance reported on Tuesday that the fine was imposed by the Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation.

According to the outlet, the BTC mining firm withheld a total of 16.6 million yuan ($2.4 million) in personal income tax that ought to be paid on its employees’ travel subsidiaries and other benefits. The outlet attributed the details to Qichacha, a Chinese platform that offers data on private and public companies in the country.

Furthermore, Sina Finance reported that in August 2022, the company was served with a notice to pay the said sum. However, it failed to pay the sum, the report said. Bitmain is yet to release an official comment on the development as of press time.

Bitmain was founded in 2013 by Co-Founders Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu. Apart from operating BTC.com and Antpool, which are two mining pools for BTC, the company is a leading manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware.

Bitmain Faces Chinese Crypto Crackdown

In recent years, the company has had trouble with its manufacturing business in China owing to a government crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. In October 2021, the company announced that it will halt the supply of its Antminer to mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) from the 11th of that month.

Months earlier in June 2021, the manufacturer halted the global sales and delivery of its machines amidst a government crackdown on crypto mining. Furthermore, Finance Magnates reported that in November of that year, the Chinese authorities warned state-owned companies against dealing in crypto mining and threatened to impose punitive measures against firms that breach its rules.

However, the question of whether China will soften its hard stance against cryptocurrency, in light of the new crypto regulations in Hong Kong, remains unanswered.

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