Bitcoin Hashrate Close to Full Recovery After China’s Mining Ban
The hashrate, or the computational power of the Bitcoin (BTC) network is close to a full recovery after a massive migration of miners out of China following a ban on mining and other crypto-related activities there in May this year.
According to the latest data, the hashrate of the Bitcoin network has accelerated higher through the month of December, hitting more than 179.5 Ehash/s as of Thursday based on a 7-day moving average of the hashrate.
The reading is just shy of the all-time high from before the ban of 182.9 Ehash/s, which coincidentally was recorded right before the Chinese government forced miners there to shut down.
The hashrate is a measure of the computing power that is dedicated to mining Bitcoin globally. The number dropped to as low as 84.5 Ehash/s in July this year and doubled since then, according to data from BitInfoCharts.
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Bitcoin hash rate continues to come back online, nearing all-time highs. True resiliency. pic.twitter.com/1dniUhnSgs
— Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) December 9, 2021
Following the sharp reduction in hashrate coming out of China, the mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network also saw a series of large drops, before a recovery started in early August.
And while miners have largely left China for greener pastures abroad, Bitcoin mining has become a booming industry in the US.
Already in August, the US had established itself as the epicenter of global Bitcoin mining, with 35.4% of the global hashrate coming from the country, according to estimations by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
Meanwhile, CleanSpark, a publicly listed Bitcoin mining firm in the US, is among the companies that have taken advantage of the Chinese ban to invest more in their North American operations.
The company said in an announcement today that it has purchased a new type of immersion cooling system for one of its mining facilities, which it expects will increase Bitcoin mining efficiency by at least 20%.
According to the firm, systems where mining machines are fully immersed in cooling liquids have proven to “significantly increase” the hashrate of the mining machines, while at the same time reducing power consumption and extending the life time of the machines.
At 17:33 UTC, BTC traded at USD 48,610, down 3% for the past 24 hours and 15% for the week.
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Learn more:
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