Analysis: 14 of the world's biggest crypto mining companies moved 2M+ machines out of China following the country's ban in May, with a majority going to Russia
China's ban on cryptocurrency mining in May triggered an exodus of miners and a global race to relocate millions of the clunky …
Context & Ripple Effects
The FT's tally closes the loop on an exodus that had been visible in pieces all year: back in August, US-listed Bit Digital was already trying to ship 20K-plus rigs to Canada and the US, and the November analysis shows where the big fleets actually landed — 14 of the world's largest miners moved over 2 million machines out of China after the May ban, with a majority going to Russia.
What makes the relocation story durable is that the ban never fully took: sources soon estimated roughly 20% of the world's bitcoin miners stayed in China underground, and research later found China's global hashrate share actually growing through early 2022.
First-order effects
- The 14 major mining companies redeployed over 2 million machines abroad within months of the ban, making Russia the single largest destination on the strength of its cheap electricity.
- China's domestic industrial-scale mining sector effectively ceased legal operation overnight, forcing every large operator into a cross-border logistics exercise for hardware worth billions.
Second-order effects
- The US emerged as the counter-destination, pulling miners with political stability, cheap capital, and abundant power — a competition between Russia and America for the same displaced fleet.
- Russia's grid regions gained a concentrated new industrial load from Chinese-origin rigs, tying local power economics to bitcoin's price cycle.
Third-order effects
- The ban redistributed rather than destroyed China's mining base: covert operations kept a meaningful share of global hashrate onshore, and Hashrate Index data shows China rebounding to 14% market share by late October — the world's third-largest miner four years after the crackdown.
- Global hashrate geography is now shaped less by national bans than by where displaced capital and machines settle, with enforcement gaps letting banned capacity persist underground.
The trend: China's mining ban is proving to be a redistribution event rather than an elimination one, with hashrate migrating to Russia and the US while a persistent underground share erodes the ban's long-term effect.