Research: despite China's crypto mining ban, its global bitcoin hashrate share grew to 21.1% from Sept. 2021 to Jan. 2022, suggesting a rise in covert mining
While the US extended its leading position as the dominant location for Bitcoin mining, China has reemerged as the second-largest locale despite … Source: Cambridge Judge Business … .
Context & Ripple Effects
China’s reported return follows a rapid displacement: research had put its hashrate share at zero after the crackdown, while the US and Kazakhstan absorbed large portions of the network’s capacity. By December, sources were already estimating that miners had moved roughly one-fifth of global mining underground in China.
The 21.1% reading turns those underground-mining reports into a measurable reversal, even as the US remains the leading location. Later coverage of China’s renewed hashrate presence suggests the ban changed where and how miners operated rather than cleanly removing China from the network.
First-order effects
- China reemerges as the second-largest reported Bitcoin-mining location, with covert operators accounting for a material share of global hashrate despite the ban.
- US miners retain the leading position gained after China’s initial collapse, but the geographic redistribution recorded in mid-2021 is no longer a one-way shift.
Second-order effects
- China’s enforcement challenge becomes more acute because hashrate location data now captures activity that had appeared to vanish after the crackdown.
- Mining businesses and infrastructure providers that benefited from the initial migration of capacity to the US and Kazakhstan face a network whose capacity is less visibly tied to formal policy permissions.
Third-order effects
- If China’s underground share persists, national mining bans will be a weaker guide to Bitcoin’s actual infrastructure footprint, shifting attention from announced restrictions to the detectability of power- and hardware-intensive operations.
- The episode points to a more fragmented mining industry in which capacity can reappear within restricted markets rather than relocating permanently to officially permitted hubs.
The trend: Bitcoin mining is becoming harder to map through formal policy and public location data as banned capacity resurfaces through covert operations.