Study: Amid Mining Bans, China Still Commands World’s Second-Largest Share of Bitcoin Hashrate

New data from the latest Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF) report on bitcoin mining shows that China is still the world’s second largest hashray. While China accounts for nearly 22% of global bitcoin hashrate, the U.S. currently dominates with 37.69%, according to CCAF researchers.

China is still the world’s second largest concentration of bitcoin miners

The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has updated data and a map of bitcoin miningto show hashrate statistics for the year 2022. In July 2021, Bitcoin.com News reported CCAF data showing that China’s hashrate fell 46%.

At the time, the Chinese government banned bitcoin mining, and many miners moved to other countries. However, recent CCAF statistics show that China’s hashrate is still very high, as the country has the second highest amount of hashrate allocated to the bitcoin network in the world (BTC).

The authors of the study believe that miners based in China are likely using virtual private networks (VPNs) to conceal their location. The report indicates that China’s share of the total Bitcoin network hashray was 21.11%.

The CCAF data comes from partner mining pools Foundry, Poolin, Viabtc and Btc.com. Moreover, some of the hashrate coming from China did not use a VPN, and CCAF researchers believe that these miners are comfortable not hiding their location.

The United States dominates the global bitcoin hashrate by more than 37%

The CCAF report notes that a “non-trivial” portion of Chinese miners may have thought that the ban was not a big deal. “It is likely that a nontrivial portion of Chinese miners quickly adapted to the new circumstances and continued to operate covertly, covering their tracks with foreign proxies to distract and divert attention.”

After CCAF’s July and October 2021 updates, a CNBC report noted that unnamed sources told reporter McKenzie Segalos that bitcoin miners were still in China. China’s hash rate is significant compared to many other countries, but the U.S. still dominates the global bitcoin hash rate at 37.69%.

CCAF data from last July showed that the U.S. captured 16.8% of global hashray last year. If the CCAF data is correct, this means that since July 2021, hashrate in the U.S. has increased by 124.34%. Pool distribution figures match the CCAF data: the Foundry USA mining pool has captured 19.5% of global hashrate in the last three months. Over the three-month period, 13,182 blocks were mined, and Foundry USA found 2,566 of them.

What do you think of the latest CCAF data that says almost 22% of the world’s bitcoin hashrate is still in China? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section below.

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