KuCoin said its mining pool will go offline “until further notice” in less than two weeks from Wednesday.
The pool, which supports proof-of-work coins such as bitcoin and litecoin, will suspend operations on Aug. 15 at 12 pm ET.
KuCoin told Blockworks the move is the result of shifting priorities for its broader business.
“The decision to suspend operations of KuCoin Pool was made to align with our evolving business strategy of focusing on core businesses and providing users with a safer and more user-friendly trading platform,” a KuCoin representative told Blockworks.
In its announcement, the crypto exchange recommended that users move their miners to alternative mining pools before the Aug. 15 deadline. The firm also advised users to back up their mining data before Aug. 27.
“We wish to emphasize that the security and integrity of your assets are our utmost priority. Throughout this suspension, you will retain complete access and control over your assets, and all other KuCoin offerings remain operational as usual,” the exchange wrote in a statement.
According to BTC.com, KuCoin’s mining pool is the ninth-largest in terms of hash rate share, comprising 1.2% of the network total over the past three days.
KuCoin’s bitcoin mining pool produced 8.24 exahashes per second (EH/s) by the time of publication, while the litecoin pool produced 3.84 terahashes per second (TH/s).
By comparison, Riot Platforms reported a deployed hash rate of 10.7 EH/s as of June 30.
KuCoin has faced other headwinds in the last few months. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the crypto exchange in January, and more recently, reports emerged of layoffs at the company. Representatives for KuCoin have denied the characterization of layoffs.
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Source: https://blockworks.co/news/kucoin-mining-pool-halt-operations