Bitcoin (BTC) mining booms as miners flock to the USA and Kazakhstan
The Bitcoin mining hash rate has returned to its highest levels since May 19 amid an impressive network recovery for China’s Bitcoin mining ban.
The BTC hash rate – now sat at a steadfast 160.1 TH/s – is a measure of how many miners are actively searching for a hash on the SHA256 Bitcoin (BTC) network.
Meanwhile the SHA256’s difficulty rate has been adjusting respectively, increasing an impressive eight times in a row for the first time since 2018.
The network difficulty now sits at familiar 21.66t – a patterned level almost identical to that seen immediately before the March rally.
Btc mining migrates
Mining recovery has come from the unexpectedly fast exodus of miners from China into different regulatory environments in North America and Asia. In many ways, the Chinese ban has forced a complete rethink of the way Bitcoin’s hashrate is conceived.
The United States (35.4%), Kazakhstan (18.10%), Canada (9.55%), and Russia (11.23%) have all become premier destinations for miners. However, this has increased miner concentration with the top 0.1% controlling 50% of mining capacity.
Amid the recovery, Bitcoin mining stocks are absolutely booming on publicly-traded exchanges – clearly benefiting from both the institutionalisation of BTC as an asset which can be leveraged as collateral for fiat loans, and from the lack of competition in China.
Furthermore, some analysts speculate miners are stockpiling BTC as collateral – creating a supply shock impact on the market.
Investors are being wowed by an impressive 217% average return of mining stocks in 2021 – which so far have outperformed BTC.
Bitfarm’s stock hit record highs in mining power in October, driving the shares 12% growth on Tuesday, and both Marathon Digital and Hive Mining posted 11% returns this week.
