Will China's Bitcoin ban change? "China-US mining data" sparks market controversy...

FX168 Financial News Agency (Asia Pacific) CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju recently sparked a controversy in the cryptocurrency community, claiming that China currently controls 55% of the Bitcoin network hash rate, while US mining pools control 40%. But the cryptocurrency media CoinTelegraph believes that there is a key misunderstanding in the claim that China dominates.

US-China Bitcoin mining data sparks controversy

Ki Young Ju said that despite China's ban on cryptocurrencies in 2021, Chinese Bitcoin miners still control 55% of the hash rate. But he pointed out that the dominance of Bitcoin mining is slowly shifting to US mining companies, which have reached a 40% share.

Ki wrote in a post on Monday (September 23): "Chinese mining pools operate 55% of the network, while US mining pools manage 40%. US mining pools are mainly for institutional miners in the United States, while Chinese mining pools support relatively small miners in Asia."

However, this heavy data has sparked heated controversy in the cryptocurrency community.

CoinTelegraph explained in depth that Bitcoin mining pools such as Antpool, F2pool, MARA Pool and Foundry have management teams or headquarters in specific countries/regions. However, miners who contribute computing power to the mining pools are distributed in various regions. This means that miners in Chinese mining pools come from all over the world, including the United States.

According to a recent analysis by TheMinerMag, two mining pools based in the United States, MARA Pool and USA Foundry Pool, mined 33.6% of all blocks in August 2024. The hash rate from these mining pools does not reflect the hash rate of American miners who have joined mining pools operating in different countries.

Source: The Miner Mag

In addition, due to the opacity of Bitcoin mining, trying to find the exact geographical distribution of hash rate is very difficult, which adds a degree of subtlety to the global hash rate competition.

China hints at a shift in "cryptocurrency policy"?

CoinTelegraph pointed out that China passed a bill in 2021 that completely banned cryptocurrency activities, but in July 2024, rumors circulated that mainland China would lift its ban on Bitcoin, which caused the crypto community to split on the authenticity of the rumors.

In January 2024, the Chinese government announced a new anti-money laundering framework that will take effect in 2025, including provisions to combat money laundering using digital assets.

Recently, China's Legal Affairs Commission considered amending an earlier ruling of China's Supreme People's Court to establish methods for monitoring money laundering in new financial technologies.

At the time, Wang Xiang, a spokesperson for the Legal Affairs Commission, explained that financial institutions should also be responsible for assessing new risks posed by emerging technologies and evaluating new business models brought about by emerging technologies.

The newly proposed anti-money laundering regulatory framework also seeks cooperation from the People's Bank of China and other financial institutions to provide guidelines for combating money laundering risks posed by emerging financial technologies such as cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Russia joins the Bitcoin mining game

It's not just a battle between China and the United States, Russia also seems to be interested in joining the fray. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the country has become a world leader in Bitcoin mining. He explained that this is due to the energy surplus that can be utilized in regions such as Siberia, but also warned that these activities should not hinder the development of the region. Data shows that Russia produced 54,000 Bitcoins in 2023.

Putin mentioned Russia’s Bitcoin mining capabilities and what makes the country fertile ground for the industry. In his speech at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), Putin acknowledged that Russia has become a leader in the industry due to the rich energy resources in its region.