Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped sharply on Tuesday, pulling back from near-record highs.
Bitcoin briefly dropped below $60,000 during Tuesday morning trade London time, declining to as low as $58,702 at one point.
It however regained some its weight and was 5.2 percent less at $60,595.44 as of 4:10 p.m. ET, according to Coin Metrics data.
Similarly, the world’s second biggest cryptocurrency, Ether, dropped 6.8 percent to $4,254.74.
The momentum responsible for the price action was unclear.
China’s state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), stated during a press conference Tuesday that it will not stop clean up virtual currency mining in the country.
China had cracked down on bitcoin mining earlier this year leading to an exodus of miners. Mining is the energy-intensive process which both creates new coins and maintains a log of all transactions of existing digital tokens.
Beijing is concerned about the amount of energy being used by mining.
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Mining “causes large energy consumption and carbon emission. It has no active impact to lead industry development or scientific progress,” NDRC spokesperson Meng Wei said on Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation of her Mandarin comments.
“Regulating cryptocurrency mining activities has significant meaning in optimizing our industrial structure, saving energy and cutting emission, achieving carbon emission and neutrality goals.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said last year that China aims to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2060.
The NDRC said it will focus on state-owned companies involved in cryptocurrency mining. It also said it is considering imposing “punitive electricity prices” against those participating in cryptocurrency mining activities but paying a residential electricity price.
China’s authorities have been focusing on wiping out bitcoin mining since earlier this year.
