Various restrictions related to cryptocurrency activity that occurred in China had a major impact on many things, including the movement of its miners.
When crypto mining activities in China are banned, it does not necessarily make the miners give up and switch to other businesses. There are indeed those who immediately liquidate their assets and switch businesses, but many also move to other countries.
Based on data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumtion Index (CBECI), many miners have moved to the United States.
As of April 2021, 46% of the global bitcoin hashrate network originated in China, while in the US it was only 16.8%. But that number changed completely last August, where the hashrate in the US shot up to 35.4%, and the next position was Kazakhstan with 18.1%.
For information, hashrate is a measurement of computational ability that is used to measure mining speed. Oh yes, during September 2021, the electricity consumption used to mine bitcoins reached 7.97 terawatt hours (TWh).
Previously, it was also reported that a company in the US had bought its own power plant for use in crypto mining activities.
That company is Stronghold Digital Mining, which bought the Scrubgrass power plant in Venango County, Pennsylvania, USA for USD 105 million. The power plant uses coal waste as its power source.
The power plant currently burns 600 tons of coal waste annually, which is enough to power 1,800 bitcoin mining computers.
Not only that, last August Stronghold also bought a second power plant in Pennsylvania, namely the Panther Creek power plant, and plans to buy a third power plant in the near future.