The US has overtaken China as the world’s largest Bitcoin mining center, after a crackdown in the Asian nation effectively eliminated the practice, reports Caixin. At the end of August, the US accounted for 35.4% of the global hash rate, a measure of computing power used to extract the digital currency, this was more than double the activity in April.
The surge in the country’s relative share was driven by China’s move to whittle down the industry to control financial risk. In the early days of Bitcoin’s 2009 inception, the Asian nation was the base for the biggest miners tapping into cheap electricity from coal and hydro plants.
Now, Beijing’s intensifying efforts to curb the cryptocurrency market, announced in May, is paying off. China’s observed share of Bitcoin mining has effectively hit zero, down from as high as 75% in September 2019. It is also a marked decrease from the 46% level notched in April this year.
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