New data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance finds US leads in Bitcoin mining, with resurgence by China to number two. The update includes a first US state-by-state breakdown of mining activity.
New data on global Bitcoin mining released by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) confirms the growing dominance of the US as the world’s leading miner, with China resurging to the second largest mining country. The update includes for the first time a state-by-state mining map for the US.
New mining map data spanning the period from September 2021 to January 2022 shows that the US extended its leading position at 37.84% of global hashrate. In China, following a sudden uptick in covert mining operations after the June 2021 government-mandated ban on Bitcoin mining, the country has re-emerged as a major mining hub (21.11% of global hashrate). Kazakhstan (13.22%), Canada (6.48%), and Russia (4.66%) have been relegated to more distant places.
When the Centre released its last update of the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) mining map in October 2021 (covering data up to the end of August 2021), the Bitcoin network was grappling with the newly imposed consequences of the Chinese ban on domestic mining activities. The government crackdown immediately resulted in a harsh decline of the total hashrate – the network’s aggregate computing power – which bottomed at 57.47 Exahashes per second (EH/s) on 27 June 2021.
However, the trend quickly reversed as Chinese miners began to relocate operations abroad, and by the end of 2021, total network hashrate had almost fully recovered to pre-ban levels (193.64 EH/s on 21 December 2021). What’s more, the upward trajectory continued in early 2022 and culminated in a new all-time hashrate high of 248.11 EH/s in February, demonstrating considerable resilience and flexibility of the Bitcoin mining industry. As a result, it is worth noting the distinction between absolute hashrate levels and relative country shares when analysing country-specific developments: a shrinking country share does not necessarily imply a decline in domestic mining activities but may rather indicate stagnation or slower growth relative to the rest of the world.
The update brings a new addition: a regional US mining map now provides more granular insights into the largest Bitcoin mining market’s hashrate distribution at the state level. Data shows that Bitcoin mining within the US clusters around certain states, with the three largest – Georgia (30.76% of the US market), Texas (11.22%), and Kentucky (10.93%) – accounting for more than half of the country’s overall hashrate. Access to comparatively low-cost electricity, available hosting capacity, and the enactment of favourable legislation could be factors explaining the influx of miners to those states. Significant mining activity can also be found in the states of New York (9.77%), California (7.9%), North Carolina (4.7%), and Washington (4.1%).
For a far more detailed breakdown of the latest Bitcoin mining map from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, please read: ‘Bitcoin mining – an (un)surprising resurgence?’