As the Chinese government clamps down on cryptocurrency and miners throughout the country, major mining companies have started shifting their operations to North America, primarily the US and Canada to weather the storm. According to a source within a Chinese mining company, it is presently working to ship thousands of mining rigs (farms) to facilities in Texas (US) and Alberta (Canada). These two regions are reportedly ideal for cryptominers, and as such are being favored by overseas mining firms.
A while back, China prohibited banks and financial institutions from trading in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies or providing any services related to them. This caused Bitcoin to drop to a several-month low, although it has since recovered part of the losses. The Chinese government has announced that it will further tighten the noose around cryptomining and trading to “curb related financial risk”. This is the first time the country has directly targeted cryptomining.
China is responsible for a whopping 70% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, meaning the vast majority of the digital currency is mined in the region. This is primarily due to the availability of cheap electricity in regions like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Sichuan. However, most of these regions have already banned commercial cryptomining. It’s being speculated the government might launch a digital version of the Yuan (Chinese national currency) to replace Bitcoin, but it’s unclear how that would work.
