Chinas Bitcoin Mining Reclaims 14% Global Hashrate

China's Bitcoin mining industry has quietly reemerged as a major global force, capturing an estimated 14 percent of the world's hashrate three years after the government imposed a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency activities. Operations are concentrating in provinces like Xinjiang and Sichuan, where miners are leveraging surplus electricity and expanding data center infrastructure to power their rigs, according to industry data and reports from operators in the regions.

The 2021 crackdown forced most Chinese miners to relocate abroad, causing the Bitcoin network's hashrate—a measure of total computing power—to plummet by more than 50 percent in the months that followed. Global hashrate eventually recovered by late that year and has since expanded dramatically, reaching 1,043 exahashes per second as of late November. China's share now ranks third worldwide, trailing the United States at 37.7 percent and Russia at 15.5 percent, based on estimates from hashrate tracking firms.

This resurgence stems from several factors. In energy-rich areas like Xinjiang, abundant hydropower and coal resources often go unused because they cannot be easily transmitted to other parts of the country....