Fourth-largest Ethereum mining pool BeePool is shutting down

China-based Ethereum mining pool BeePool, currently the fourth-largest in terms of hashrate, announced Tuesday that it is shutting down on October 15.

The move is in "response to the latest regulatory policies," said BeePool.

Last week, China's central bank tightened its policy on crypto, declaring all crypto-related activities illegal. BeePool was founded four years ago and is based in China's Hubei province.

Its announcement comes a day after Hangzhou-based Sparkpool, the second-largest Ethereum mining pool, said it is shutting down entirely by the end of this month.

China's latest crackdown has not only affected mining pools, but also crypto exchanges. Binance and Huobi recently announced that they will no longer provide services to China-based users.