The latest Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) hashrate figures will make interesting reading for anyone in the Bitcoin (BTC) mining space.
Last year, the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School reported that the “leading share” of global Bitcoin network hashrate “now sits in the United States, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia.” Indeed, per the August 2021 numbers, China’s hashrate sat at a big fat 0%.
But despite one of the most intense crackdowns on BTC mining anywhere in the world in September 2021, the latest CBECI data appears to show that Chinese hashrate actually climbed to 22.3% in September. And, in the months following (up to January this year), the data shows that Chinese BTC hasrate did not fall below the 18% mark.
The CBECI data – in fact – shows that Chinese hashrate fell from just under 50% of the global total in May 2021 to absolutely nothing in August before recovering to over 20% the following month.
Reports in China continue to suggest that some miners continued to operate underground in the months following the crackdown, but the majority of major industrial players are believed to have shut down their rigs.
On May 17, China’s CNR reported that the Energy Conservation Department at the Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau had issued a notice warning residents and companies in the province about the risks involved with crypto mining and mining rigs.
Guangdong ordered residents to stop using rigs and stated that machines could be “confiscated according to the law,” adding that companies involved in illegal mining could be hit with business suspension orders or win-up notices.
However, such warnings have become less common in China in recent months – as have reports of police raiding illegal crypto mining “farms.” A number of mining pools have upped sticks and many others have closed their door to Mainland China-related participants.
The CBECI mining map shows that the United States still has the lion’s share of the total average monthly hashrate share – with just under 39% in January 2022. China’s 21.11% was next. And only Kazakhstan, which has had its own run-ins with BTC miners, came anywhere close to the Middle Kingdom – with 13.22%.
In another curious development, Russia’s figure in January (prior to the invasion of Ukraine) was 4.66% – down significantly from August 2021’s figures of 11.23%, and also at a time when Russian media reports had claimed that mining was on the up in the nation.
Source: Cryptonews
