Bitcoin's hashrate fell by about 10% in a single day on Sunday, and Kong Jianping, former co-chairman of Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Canaan, attributed the decline to the closure of a mining farm in China's Xinjiang autonomous region.
In a post on X on Monday, Kong said that since Sunday, Bitcoin's hashrate has fallen by about 100 terahashes per second (TH/s). He claimed the decline was due to the shutdown of “at least 400,000 machines” based on an estimate of 250 terahash per application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner.
Kong linked the change to the closure of a Bitcoin mining farm in China's Xinjiang autonomous region. Although Cointelegraph was unable to independently verify this claim, Kong's status as a former co-chairman of a Chinese Bitcoin mining ASIC manufacturer lends some credibility to the claim.
Bitcoin's hashrate fell from 1,053 TH/s on Sunday to just under 943 TH/s on Monday, according to YCharts data. This corresponds to more than 10% loss or 110 TH/s. Still, the network's total hashrate is an estimate inferred from network statistics and cannot be measured precisely.
sauce: Cong Jumping
Related: Scaramucci Family Invests More than $100 Million in President Trump's Bitcoin Mining Company: Report
China: Bitcoin’s untrustworthy friend
China has historically had a large presence in the Bitcoin (BTC) mining industry, but it has also proven to be an unreliable source of hashrate. Prior to 2021, China accounted for the majority of Bitcoin's hashrate (approximately 65%) until the Chinese government moved to halt mining activities in the same year.
Mining operations will resume across China in 2024, with October hashrate index data showing that China now accounts for about 14% of global Bitcoin mining. CryptoQuant instead estimates that China's contribution is between 15% and 20% of Bitcoin's overall hashrate.
Late last month, Reuters reported that private and corporate miners across China were exploiting cheap electricity despite the ban. Mr. Kong was not very happy with the situation, saying that with the closure of Bitcoin mines in Xinjiang, “the United States wins without saying a word.”
sauce: Cong Jumping
Related: Google acquires 5.4% stake in Bitcoin mining company Cipher Mining in $3 billion deal
US aims for Bitcoin mining crown
Kong's comments come as the U.S. domestic Bitcoin mining industry is growing at an increasingly rapid pace. In late August, Bitcoin mining company Hut8 announced it would build four new Bitcoin mines in Texas, Louisiana, and Illinois, adding 1.5 gigawatts of capacity.
Hut8 is the parent company of American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin mining and finance company with ties to the Trump family, which went public through a merger in early May. The company's board includes Eric Trump, the second eldest of U.S. President Donald Trump's three sons, reinforcing the idea that U.S. leaders are also betting on Bitcoin mining.
The US is also attacking China's Bitcoin mining and ASIC industries more directly. According to reports in late November, China-based Bitcoin, a major producer of Bitcoin mining ASICs, is under investigation in the United States due to national security concerns.
The goal of the investigation is to determine whether the hardware can be remotely controlled to monitor or interfere with the U.S. power grid. Actions imposed after the investigation could also affect the Trump family. American Bitcoin acquired a fleet of 16,299 Antminer U3S21EXPH units from Bitmain.
In October 2024, U.S. authorities investigated Xiamen Sofgo, a Chinese chip designer associated with Bitmain, over suspected business ties to Huawei, a company subject to U.S. sanctions. Just one month later, U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped shipping thousands of Bitmain ASICs. U.S. officials only began releasing the hardware in March.
