Moves by China\'s authorities to tighten regulations are affecting many parts of the cryptocurrency industry. ViaBTC, a Chinese mining pool, announced last week that it plans to adjust the maintenance fees for its cloud mining facilities.

An online statement was published on January 11th, stating that ViaBTC would be imposing a temporary increase in the ratio of its maintenance fees. AntMiner S9’s contract for cloud mining will now be subject to a whopping 50% in maintenance fees, a drastic rise from the previous 6%. The maintenance fee ratio in regard to their AntMiner D3 and L3 contracts, however, remains static at 6%, although the contracts may not yet be terminated.

The notice was given only days after the cryptocurrency mining company had announced closure of its contract marketplace on January 8th. No indication was given of how long the temporary increase in fee ratios will last, but users can opt to terminate AntMiner S9 contracts before January 18th.

The increased rate came into effect on January 12th, and was stated to be the result of scarcer mining resources in Mainland China. The ViaBTC mining pool presently accounts for 14.1% of the global hashrate, or volume of computing power, according to Blockchain statistics.