In brief – Last week marked a new stage in China’s war on cryptocurrencies. – Crypto businesses are feeling the effects. A day after SparkPool, the second-largest Ethereum mining pool in the world, announced it would cease operations, the fourth-largest mining group has joined it. BeePool, based in China, announced today it would shut down on October 15 just before midnight and says it has stopped registering new users. BeePool said the closure came “in response to the latest regulatory policies.” SparkPool also cited “regulatory requirements.” According to data from the Etherscan block explorer, the two mining pools are responsible…