Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, hammering digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny of them.

A State Council committee led by Vice Premier Liu He announced the crackdown as part of efforts to fend off financial risks. It was the first time the council has targeted virtual currency mining, a big business in China that accounts for as much as 70% of the world's crypto supply.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi on Monday suspended both crypto-mining and trading services to mainland Chinese clients, adding it will instead focus on overseas businesses.

BTC.TOP, a crypto mining pool, also announced the suspension of its China business citing regulatory risks, while crypto miner HashCow said it would halt buying new bitcoin rigs.

The crackdown is also part of China's stepped-up drive to curb speculative crypto trading.

Bitcoin took a beating after the latest Chinese move, and is now down nearly 50% from its all-time high.

Investor protection and money laundering are particular concerns of global financial regulators who are grappling with whether and how they should regulate the cryptocurrency industry.

The latest shakeout in digital currencies also stems from tighter scrutiny in the United States.

Huobi made the announcement via its official Telegram community for Huobi Mall, as well in a statement to Reuters.

The annual energy consumption of China's cryptocurrency miners is expected to peak in 2024 at about 297 terawatt-hours, greater than all the power consumption by Italy in 2016, according to a study recently published in Nature Communications.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged carbon neutrality by 2060.

China has already lost its position as a global cryptocurrency trading centre after Beijing banned crypto exchanges in 2017.

"Eventually, China will lose crypto computing power to foreign markets as well," BTC.TOP founder Jiang wrote in a micro blog post via Weibo, predicting the rise of U.S. and European mining pools.