China returns as 2nd top Bitcoin mining hub despite the crypto ban

cointelegraph.com:

The Chinese government has not managed to take down cryptocurrency operations as part of its crypto ban last year as China has re-emerged as one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hubs, according to a new report.

China became the second-largest Bitcoin hash rate provider as of January 2022, months after the local government banned all crypto operations in the country, according to the latest update from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) shared with Cointelegraph on May 17.

Bitcoin miners in China accounted for 21.1% of the total global BTC mining hash rate distribution as of early 2022, following only the United States, which produced 37.8% of the total hash rate as of January, according to the data.

China was once the world's largest Bitcoin mining country, with the local BTC hash rate power accounting for more than 75% in 2019. The hash rate then plummeted to 0% in July and August 2021, following a series of crypto mining farm shutdowns in the country.  

Despite the crypto ban in September 2021, the hash rate share surged to 22.3% that month and did not drop below 18% over the analyzed period.

CBECI project lead Alexander Neumueller told Cointelegraph that the new data is enough to conclude that Bitcoin mining is still live in China, stating:

The latest CBECI update also signals a slight drop in the hash rate share in Kazakhstan, the world's third-largest BTC mining hub. Kazakhstan’s BTC hash rate share dropped from 18% in August to 13.2% in January.

The CBECI data also shows that miners now mine as much as 9% of the global BTC hash rate in undefined locations. Canada and Russia are the following major mining hubs, accounting for 6.5% and 4.7%, respectively.

In addition to dropping out from