China's cryptocurrency miners are migrating to the U.S. and elsewhere ahead of a law that will ban their business.
China - home to more than half of the world's Bitcoin miners - is serious about booting out cryptocurrency miners. The action is part of a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.
Big cryptocurrency miners such as Alejandro De La Torre are cutting their losses and running. De La Torre, the vice president of Hong Kong-based mining company Poolin, said it was preparing to move to the U.S and Canada.
"We do not want to face every single year, some sort of new ban coming in China. So we're trying to diversify our global mining hash rate, and that's why we are moving to the U.S. and to Canada," De La Torre said.
China's government said in May it would prohibit all Bitcoin mining and trading. This set off what some have called the "great mining migration."
U.S. states such as Texas expect to benefit. Texas has some of the world's lowest energy prices - making it an attractive location for Bitcoin miners. Mining cryptocurrencies is an energy-intensive process requiring hundreds, if not thousands, of computers to create new coins and log transactions nonstop.
"You are going to see a dramatic shift over the next few months. We have governors like Greg Abbott in Texas who are promoting mining. It is going to become a real industry in the United States, which is going to be incredible," the former security engineer at cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Brandon Arvanaghi, said.
Data for the world distribution of mining power for 2021 isn't available but information from last year showed about 65% to 75% of the world's Bitcoin mining was in China. Most mines were in Sichuan and Yunnan - both of which have easy access to cheap hydroelectric power. Provinces such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were also popular because of their proximity to big coal power plants.
