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Bit Digital, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company headquartered in New York that had significant operations in China, said in its latest Q3 update that the exit of its mining fleet from China is now complete, with all of its miners having arrived in North America.
Fast facts
- Bit Digital said it started the migration back in October 2020, but accelerated the move after China’s clampdown on the sector began earlier this year.
- “We completed our fleet’s exit from China,” the company said in the statement. It said as of the end of September, it had no miners remaining in China, and 79.1% of its miner fleet was shipped to North America, with the rest in transit.
- During the third quarter, Bit Digital inked two new hosting agreements in the U.S. for 135 megawatts of additional power capacity.
- “It’s unusual that a business is faced with migrating the majority of its operating assets across the globe on an expedited timeline,” Bryan Bullett, Bit Digital’s CEO, said in the statement. “It’s also unusual that a major economy exits an entire vertical, as China did earlier this year, by banning Bitcoin mining. Despite the initial operational complexity — a challenge our team squarely met — we believe the shift in global hash distribution will result in a stronger Bitcoin network, with the majority of hash now located here in North America.”
- This is not the first time for Bit Digital to face regulatory headwinds. Established in 2015, Bit Digital, formerly known as Golden Bull, started its business with a focus on peer-to-peer (P2P) car rentals in China, but after a nationwide clampdown on P2P lending in 2018, it struggled and eventually made a pivot into crypto mining in 2020.
- China has been actively clamping down on crypto mining since earlier this year. On Sept. 24, the NDRC jointly issued a notice with 10 other authorities to wipe out crypto mining. The NDRC has also proposed to label the crypto mining industry as “outdated,” which could prohibit investments in the sector.
- Meanwhile, Sichuan’s provincial government held a meeting on Wednesday and once again stressed cracking down crypto mining and trading, instructing local authorities to take the clampdown seriously and strictly perform relevant rectification work.