ViaBTC has announced their entry into the world of Bitcoin cloud-mining scams, offering hashrate sales of their S9 mining power for 0.21 BTC per 1 TH/s. The announcement also stated that users would be able to trade mining contracts in a similar manner to failed mining exchange cex.io.

Our cloud mining exchange platform is under development and will be soon integrated into www.viabtc.com. At that time users can freely trade their cloud mining contracts. Early-stage contract holders can direct their contacts to www.viabtc.com then by signing their wallet addresses.

ViaBTC further stated that "Redemption of miners and change of mining pool are not available for the contract" ensuring that suckers for the scam are not able to use the purchased hashpower on any competing pool or fork.

The recent moves seem to be the death rattles of Roger Ver's latest attempt to stage a coup, having failed to bribe Venezuelan miners to join his revolution. ViaBTC pool stands at ~7% of total network hashrate at the time of this article.