A new report confirms that big-scale miners maintain operating in China even after the government ban. Moreover, China is now the second top Bitcoin mining country.
Last summer Chinese government banned Bitcoin mining, which made the BTC price drop in half and shook the crypto market.
Miners gradually started fleeing to countries like Kazakhstan, Russia, Malaysia, and others.
And recently the U.S. became the global leader for Bitcoin mining with regard to the hash rate. President Joe Biden even issued Executive Order on crypto regulation, which can broadly support crypto miners.
But as it appears in May 2022, Chinese miners actually didn’t quit the game.
Is Bitcoin mining a thing in China again?
According to the newest Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), China became the second-largest Bitcoin hash rate provider as of January 2022.
That’s like six months after the Chinese government eventually brought a mining ban.
The Index says China still hosts 21,1% of the total global Bitcoin hash rate, despite a local government ban on all crypto operations.
The United States is leading the Bitcoin mining market with 37,8% of the total hash rate, the data shows.
You may think that the Chinese government didn’t succeed in the crypto mining ban. But the fact is China’s local BTC hash rate power was more than 75% in 2019, as it soared to 0% in July and August 2021.
Bitcoin miners in China do surge right now, although they are far from former heights.
The CBECI also shows Kazakhstan is the third biggest BTC mining country with a hash rate of around 13,2%. Kazakhs are followed by Canada (6,5%) and Russia (4,7%).
Interestingly, 9% of the global BTC hash rate is in undefined locations.
Does somebody mine in Europe?
It’s hard to evaluate the Bitcoin mining pool in Europe as many miners might hide their identity using proxy services like VPNs.
But it’s clear that European miners now have more rights than their Chinese colleagues.
In mid-March, the European Parliament voted against the crypto mining ban. Instead, politics set new draft rules to “protect consumers and make mining more sustainable”.
As for carbon footprint, MEPs have asked the European Commission to include crypto-assets mining in the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities by 2025.
“With the adoption of the MiCA report, the European Parliament has paved the way for an innovation-friendly crypto-regulation that can set standards worldwide,” said MEP Stefan Berger of the European People’s Party.
We only can predict that high European electricity prices can frighten miners and affect Bitcoin mining.
But the question is why they aren’t afraid of strict Chinese law?
Sources: Cointelegraph
