Hong Kong-based crypto exchange BTCC announced that it will be shutting down its mining pool business, BTCC Pool, after over four years of operation.

As it reads in the announcement released today,

“…due to adjustments in our business, BTCC Pool will shut down all mining servers on November 15 and cease operations indefinitely from November 30 onwards.”

The pool asks miners to switch their hashing power before November 15, and bind the mining revenue address before November 20. It promises to distribute the mining profits as soon as possible.

BTCC Pool, launched in 2014, was one of BTCC’s several business verticals, alongside a crypto wallet called Mobi and a USD/BTC exchange. The latter, BTCC exchange, was China’s first bitcoin exchange formerly known as BTC China and it was once top-three trading platforms in the country. Early this year, the exchange was acquired by a Hong Kong-based blockchain investment fund after the country’s heavy crackdowns on crypto exchanges last September.

The brand, which used to be a heavyweight in various segments of the bitcoin ecosystem from bitcoin mining to trading, now fall apart along with the mining pool’s indefinite closure.

According to btc.com, the pool, struggling since entering 2018, saw no hashing power contribution with only 72 blocks mined in the last three months. The has-been third largest mining pool, has lost its name in the ranking.

Hash power distribution in the last 24 hours according to btc.com

In a time when the crypto market is in the longlasting sluggish, the mining sector seems to suffer the most, small ones are quitting the game while others are still striving for a likely better tomorrow.

As BTCC Pool said in the announcement that they believe crypto assets and blockchain industry will continue to develop and improve.