US Takes the Lead in Bitcoin Hashrate Share

The United States has displaced China from the lead in Bitcoin network hashrate. Since May 2021, the US share of total hashrate rose from 17.8% to 35.4% in August, according to data from Cambridge University’s Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF).

Against the backdrop of the mass exodus of miners from the PRC, triggered in May by repressions against the industry, hashrate shares in this period rose in several other jurisdictions as well.

In Kazakhstan it rose from 7.4% to 18.1%, and in Canada from 4.7% to 9.6%.

These very countries, alongside the United States, experts indicated as the main destinations for migrating Chinese mining capacity.

Russia’s share, from 7.2% in May, rose to 11.2%.

According to CCAF, China had already lost its dominance in Bitcoin mining by March 2021, when its hashrate first fell to less than half of the total.

In June, MicroStrategy chief executive Michael Saylor, commenting on the crackdown on the industry in the PRC, called them a “one-trillion-dollar mistake”. He forecast that Beijing’s measures would benefit North American miners.

Analysts calculated that in Q3, eight mining companies listed in the United States accounted for 7.5% of the bitcoins rewarded for a block. Compared with the April–June period, they collectively increased mining by 82%, with Marathon’s rise at 91%.

In September, the People’s Bank of China, together with nine ministries, issued a statement in which cryptocurrency operations were classified as illegal financial activity.

Following this, e-commerce giant Alibaba announced a ban on the sale of devices for cryptocurrency mining on its platform.

The largest producer of mining equipment, Bitmain, decided to halt its sale to Chinese customers.

Regulatory authorities in China began examining the possibility of prosecuting cryptocurrency trading and mining.