Alibaba To Stop Selling Bitcoin Mining Machines In China

The ecommerce giant said it would delist bitcoin mining equipment from its platforms after the renewed China ban of Bitcoin.

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba will delist bitcoin mining equipment offers from its platforms and prohibit their future selling after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) issued a renewed and reinforced ban on bitcoin and cryptocurrency on September 24.

“Alibaba.com will prohibit the sale of virtual currency miners in addition to the prohibition against selling virtual currencies such as Bitcoin…which include but are not limited to: hardware and software used to obtain virtual currencies such as Bitcoin miners; [and] tutorials, strategies, and software for obtaining virtual currencies such as tutorials on mining,” the company said yesterday.

In addition to the strict measures to prevent customers from gaining insight into ways for acquiring BTC and other cryptocurrencies, Alibaba will close two categories of its platform, “Blockchain Miners” and “Blockchain Miner Accessories.” Merchants that attempt to sell bitcoin miners or associated products in Alibaba’s platforms will face penalties.

“For violations such as maliciously evading rules, deliberately confusing product information, intentionally placing products into improper categories, falsely exaggerating products, Alibaba.com will impose penalties according to the severity of the violations, which include but are not limited to removing or deleting products, deducting points, restricting the use of website functions, and closing accounts,” the company detailed.

Alibaba owns and operates many online platforms in China, in addition to the more prominent Aliexpress ecommerce store. Other online venues managed by the Alibaba group include Taobao, the marketplace of used goods Xianyu, and Southeast Asia’s Lazada. The new rules will apply to all the platforms owned or operated by Alibaba.

China has been attempting to ban Bitcoin since 2013, only a few years after the peer-to-peer (P2P) network was born. The constant new attempts that followed were only a demonstration of how it couldn’t do it and that it will not be able to do it going forward. Regulated entities like Alibaba and bitcoin exchange Huobi will surely step out, but P2P markets are set to thrive, similar to Nigeria. Nonetheless, the China ban is good for Bitcoin.