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Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain will no longer ship its Bitcoin mining machines to mainland China addresses following the crypto ban imposed by the Chinese authorities.
Bitmain Suspends Shipments of Bitcoin Mining in Mainland China
On Sunday, the Beijing-based mining manufacturing firm Bitmain announced that it will stop domestic delivery starting to mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) from Monday but overseas business will remain as usual. In addition, it has also increased the supply of Antbox to speed up the construction of overseas mines.
In addition to China’s blanket ban on crypto, the company has attributed the move as a response to China’s carbon-neutral policies.
Bitmain's latest move may not impact the company much as its domestic sales had been declining since late last year amid the rise of North American mining operations. It formally marks the end of its domestic market share, which accounted for nearly 50% of its revenues in 2017 and about 40% in the first half of 2018.
On Sept. 27, the world’s second-largest Ethereum mining pool, SparkPool halted services to all of its users due to the country’s ban followed by another Ethereum mining pool BeePool.
BTC Network Hashrate on Recovery
China’s crypto crackdown has resulted in miners outside of the region moving to friendly jurisdictions, resulting in a recovery in the bitcoin network’s hashrate. For instance, data from analytics firm Glassnode indicates that the mean bitcoin hashrate has recovered more than 140% since its July lows.
In the meantime, Bitcoin’s hash rate difficulty has also increased 39% since late July. Chinese media outlet Wu Blockchain highlighted that Bitcoin’s difficulty increased by 4.71% at block height 703,584 on Oct. 5, marking the sixth consecutive increase since July 31.