Arcane Research: China’s dominance in Bitcoin mining is steadily shrinking

The share of Bitcoin miners from China in the hash rate is declining as computing power grows in other countries, including the United States and Kazakhstan, noted analysts at Arcane Research.

In September 2019, China accounted for 75.6% of the hash rate. By April 2020, the figure had fallen to 65.1%.

Source: Arcane Research.

During this period, the share of US-based miners nearly doubled, reaching 7.2%.

Kazakhstan demonstrated rapid growth in mining capacity — in April 2020 the country’s hash rate stood at 6.2% of the total. Since September 2019, the share has risen more than fourfold.

Russia’s corresponding share remained almost flat. Hash rate for Bitcoin mining in Iran rose to 3.8%.

Earlier, a representative of ASIC miner maker Bitmain, commenting on partnership with its subsidiary Digital Currency Group, stressed that North America is rapidly becoming the ‘epicentre of Bitcoin mining’. The collaboration between the Chinese firm and Foundry is intended to facilitate local mining companies’ access to financing.

In recent months, American firms signed several major contracts to purchase flagship Bitcoin miners. In September, Marathon Patent Group signed a long-term contract with Bitmain to supply 10 500 units of Antminer S19 Pro. In October, the company agreed with the Chinese manufacturer to buy another 10 000 such devices.

Marathon expects that after these deals are completed next year its hash rate will reach 2.56 EH/s. This is about 2.35% of the total at the time of writing (BitInfoCharts).

In July, Riot Blockchain received and installed 1,000 units of the S19 Pro, another 1,040 devices arrived in August. In the same month, the company concluded new contracts with Bitmain to purchase a total of 13 100 S19 Pro miners. In November, Riot added to this total an order for another 2 500 units.

After installing all ordered equipment, Riot’s hash rate will theoretically exceed 2 EH/s by June 2020.

In September, opened one of the largest mining data centres in Kazakhstan, capable of housing up to 50,000 devices. The government of the country reached preliminary agreements to attract more than $700 million in investment into the industry.

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