Banking On China Ban, This Central Asian Country Has Become 3rd Largest Hub For Bitcoin Mining

Central Asian country Kazakhstan has become one of the world’s leading hubs for Bitcoin BTC/USD mining, ranking behind the United States and China.

What Happened: This comes after China in August 2021 suspended mining and trading operations, placing the U.S. at the top — and Kazakhstan banked on the move and became the first to welcome the displaced Chinese miners.

According to Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Kazakhstan contributed to 13.22% of the total Bitcoin hash rate as of January. The U.S. contributed 37.84% and China, 21.11%. Canada stood at number four, contributing to 6.5% of the Bitcoin hash rate, followed by Germany at 3.1% and Malaysia at 2.5%.

Hashrate is defined as the computing power required by the blockchain network to process mining operations. A higher hashrate makes cryptocurrency more secure because it would take more miners — and cost more in energy and time — to take over the network.

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Kazakhstan utilizes non-renewable energy, such as oil — over 50%, coal — 28% and natural gas — 17%, until 2020, according to the International Energy Agency.

Price Action: Bitcoin is trading at $19,379.27, at the time of writing, up by 0.91% in 24 hours. Ethereum ETH/USD is up 2.70% in the last 24 hours, trading at $1,348.54, according to Benzinga Pro.

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