The world's leading mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain allegedly halts sales in China and plans to relocate production outside of China after the country's cryptocurrency and mining bans.

Bitmain, one of the world's largest manufacturers of bitcoin mining machines, plans to suspend sales of its products in mainland China after Chinese authorities declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, three sources familiar with the situation told CoinDesk.

Bitmain also plans to relocate most of its manufacturing capacity from Shenzhen in southern China to other countries.

Two sources are responsible for the procurement of computers in large mining pools, and the third source is actively working with Chinese miners. They all asked to remain anonymous because they had no right to publicly discuss Bitmain's decisions. The company itself did not comment on the matter.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) tightened its stance on cryptocurrency trading last week by declaring all cryptocurrency-related transactions illegal. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which was a popular marketplace for mining machines sales, announced the suspension of sales of mining machines starting October 8.

In June 2021, Bitmain already announced it would suspend sales of new computing machines around the world due to the large volume of sales in the secondary market, which was associated with the ban on mining in China.

"Some Chinese clients are selling mining machines to either recoup funds or reduce the time the machine remains in the Chinese mainland, resulting in huge pressure within the secondhand market," Bitmain announced at a post on its Wechat account.

The Global Times reported that prices for computing machines for mining cryptocurrencies plummeted after China ban cryptocurrency mining in June, as Chinese miners rushed to get rid of their mining devices.