#mining

In May 2021, a massive cryptocurrency crackdown happened in China: the government banned cryptocurrency mining in four major provinces. The clampdown led to the forced relocation of a solid number of both Chinese and international digital assets companies and brought about a drop in the bitcoin hash rate by more than 50%. The Chinese government's ultimate ban on financial institutions, including banks and online payment channels for applying cryptocurrency, then echoed around the world and hit the news reports of multiple crypto websites. According to Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at Chinese crypto company Foundry, by the end of June 2021, about 90% of Chinese miners were forced to completely stop mining digital assets.

Lately, the number of headlines and tweets about Bitcoin’s energy use and potential environmental impact has grown. Does Bitcoin use too much energy? Is it possible to mine BTC using only 100% renewable energy sources? Let’s find the answers to these questions.

Last weekend the Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped more than 49%, after hitting an all-time high at 218 exahash per second, reaching 169 EH/s. Immediately after that, regional reporter Colin Wu tweeted about power outages in China. “The hashrate of Bitcoin mining pools plummeted in 24 hours. Antpool fell by 24.5%, Btc.com fell by 18.9%, Poolin fell by 33%, Binance pool fell by 20%,” he said. “The reason is that Northwest China is undergoing a complete blackout for safety inspections.”

March has become a profitable month for miners. According to data collected by The Block Research, they have earned more than $1.5 billion in March. This is an impressive number and the highest income earned by the mining sector in just one month. The record high in March surpasses February when miners earned $1.36 billion in this sector. New performance numbers show that miners have over $1 billion for each of the three months in a row!

Bitcoin has surged over the last few months and is breaking new records. Experts predict the future of cryptocurrency, and global companies continue to invest more in BTC. The question is, will it continue to rise, and should you start the race for Bitcoins now?