Bitcoin miners to flee China after crackdown
The Bitcoin mining exodus from China has begun.
Shenzhen-based BIT Mining has sent a first tranche of its mining machines to Kazakhstan, following the crypto crackdown by China's central bank.
China, home to more than half the world's Bitcoin miners, is attempting to root out non-government sanctioned crypto activity, and has put the squeeze on mining and trading.
A techician walks by rows of super computers inside BitCoin mining facility operated by Haobtc outside the ethnic Tibetan frontier town Kangding in West Sichuan. This facility houses around 10,000 super computers that solve mathematical equations around the clock to produce the virtual currency. AP
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BIT Mining is getting out of China after it was told power to its Shenzhen operation would be turned off by the local energy supplier.
The mining company confirmed in a statement to the US stock exchange it has shipped 320 machines to Kazakhstan, with plans to send 2600 more Bitcoin miners to the central Asian country by the end of this month.
BIT Mining's contingency plans also include a new mining hub in Texas.
BIT Mining was one of 26 Bitcoin mining facilities on the Sichuan government's shutdown hit-list announced last Thursday.
Up until now, latest data estimates suggest around three-quarters of the world's Bitcoin mining has taken place in China, mostly in four provinces: Sichuan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Yunnan.
Mining for Bitcoin requires a huge amount of energy, which has recently thrown a cloud over the market's green credentials and caused some price volatility.
With plentiful coal supplies, Kazakhstan shapes as an ideal alternative to the hydro and coal-rich provinces in China.
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A cryptocurrency mining rig composed of Asus Strix machines operates at the SberBit mining 'hotel' in Moscow, Russia. Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg
Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the US and Northern Europe are also being talked up as viable alternatives for miners, as they flee China.
Crypto continues to catch a lot of heat from China, which for months has been signalling a more aggressive push to curtail the use of such currencies.
The People's Bank of China on Monday said it summoned Alipay, the popular online payments platform run by Jack Ma's Ant Group, along with five big lenders and told them to "comprehensively investigate and identify" cryptocurrency exchanges and dealers so they could cut off any crypto trading.
China's growing crackdown is also in part to boost the state-backed digital yuan initiative, which authorities want to implement so they can keep money flows in check.
The moves by China's central bank have caused Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to tank in the last seven days.
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