China’s bitcoin miners scoop up greater production power, says research by digital asset manager CoinShares
- Chinese companies such as Bitmain and MicroBT are among the world’s biggest manufacturers of bitcoin mining gear
- The most significant cryptocurrency mining hubs are in China’s Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan provinces, says CoinShares
China’s bitcoin miners now control two-thirds of the crypto network’s processing power, research showed on Wednesday, a growing share that is likely to benefit the country’s miners.
Miners in China control 66 per cent of global “hashrate”, a measure of the power of computers hooked up to the bitcoin network that dictates their ability to produce new coins, according to a report by digital asset manager CoinShares.
The Chinese share of hashrate, up from 60 per cent in June, is the highest recorded by CoinShares since it began tracking hashrate nearly two years ago. The gains may be due to their greater deployment of more advanced mining gear, said Chris Bendiksen, the firm’s head of research.
Chinese companies such as Bitmain and MicroBT are among the world’s biggest manufacturers of bitcoin mining gear. Another, Canaan, launched a US$90 million initial public offering in November, indicating investor hunger for exposure to miners.
At bitcoin’s current price of around US$7,200 per “coin”, miners produce bitcoin worth around US$4.7 billion every year.
“This is beneficial to the Chinese mining industry,” said Bendiksen. “If you are the first to increase your proportion of the hashrate, and you can do that before your competitors, that’s generally good.”