US becomes largest bitcoin mining center after China crackdown: Market wrap

US becomes largest bitcoin mining center after China crackdown: Market wrap

RIYADH: The US has overtaken China to account for the largest share of bitcoin mining in the world, according to data released by Britain’s Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance on Wednesday. China’s share of the power of computers connected to the global bitcoin network, known as the “hash rate,” had fallen to zero by July from 44 percent in May, and from as much as 75 percent in 2019, the data showed. Miners elsewhere have taken up the slack, with mining rig manufacturers shifting their attention to North America and Central Asia, and larger Chinese miners moving as well, though this process is fraught with logistical difficulties. As a result, the US now accounts for the largest share of mining, some 35.4 percent of the global hash rate as of the end of August, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia. Binance, one of the world’s largest exchange by trading volumes, will stop the use of the Chinese yuan on its peer-to-peer trading platform, the latest move by major global cryptocurrency exchanges to cut their ties with mainland Chinese investors following an intense crackdown on the sector. It will remove the Chinese yuan section of its consumer-to-consumer platform on Dec. 31 this