US Tops China as Biggest Source of Bitcoin Mining

The U.S. has beaten China as the new top source of bitcoin mining after Beijing banned the practice earlier in the year, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

China’s share of the global hashrate fell from 44% to zero from May to July, according to figures from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, which were cited in the report. The U.S. share, meanwhile, increased from 17% in April to 35% in August.

China’s State Council banned crypto mining and trading in May over both environmental and financial concerns. Miners left the country for other places where they could find cheaper energy and crypto-friendly politicians.

In other news, China’s moves have intended to trim the industry as much as possible to curb risk, TheAge.com reported.

China’s share of bitcoin mining has effectively hit zero, representing a steep fall from the 75% in September 2019 and 46% in April this year, according to the report.

There’s a possibility that crypto mining is still happening in China, routed through “virtual private networks” that make it look like computers are operating in another country, the report stated.

Meanwhile, a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which has been highly anticipated, might not happen until next year, CNBC reported.

The bitcoin ETF might be delayed until 2022 over what Todd Rosenbluth of CFRA Research said is a “timing issue,” according to the report.

He told CNBC there’s a question over when to debut the ETF so the several filings that could meet the goals correctly “are approved and can launch at the same time instead of getting a first-mover advantage.”

“It’s possible — in fact, we think it’s likely — that we’re going to see a delay of a bitcoin futures ETF until 2022, until the regulatory environment is more clear,” he said, per the report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into the potential for discrepancies between bitcoin and futures prices, the possibility of funds to get too large and push the limits on the number of contracts they can own, and cross-border investment risks, the report stated.