Why The ‘great China Bitcoin Mining Crackdown’ Fell Short Of Early...
Data suggests that fears about Xinjiang-related Bitcoin mining have overstated the impact, with hashrate losses proving brief and driven partly by US power curtailments.
Recent claims of a major Bitcoin mining crackdown in China’s Xinjiang region rippled through the digital asset industry this week, but data by TheMinerMag suggests the actual impact was far smaller than early narratives implied.
According to the latest Miner Weekly report, the Bitcoin network initially experienced a short-term hashrate decline, which was linked to developments in Xinjiang. However, the drop also coincided with power curtailments in the United States.
Most major mining pools recovered to near pre-dip levels within days, resulting in a net decline of roughly 20 exahashes per second, which is significantly lower than the approximately 100 EH/s loss cited in early reports. “That points to a largely temporary disruption rather than a sustained, region-specific shutdown,” the report said.
The distinction is meaningful for assessing Bitcoin’s security and miner activity. While large, sustained hashrate declines can affect block production and mining difficulty, overstating the role of a single regional event risks distorting views of global mining dynamics and exaggerating geopolitical exposure.
Data from TheMinerMag shows that the largest pool-level declines during Monday’s disruption came from North America, with Foundry USA alone reporting an estimated 180 EH/s drop in hashrate.
While Chinese-origin mining pools recorded combined declines of about 100 EH/s, “attributing the entire drop to Xinjiang would be a stretch,” the report said.
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Reports of a renewed Bitcoin (BTC) mining crackdown in China surfaced this week after Jianping Kong, a former executive at hardware producer Canaan, said that some operations in the Xinjiang region had been shut down.
Early estimates circulating on social media suggested that as many as 400,000 to 500,000 mining machines may have gone offline.
Source: CoinTelegraph
