Is Bitcoin mining moving from China to North America? Chinese "miners" have something to say

The Paper intern Ye Yinghe and reporter Zheng Ge

Is it possible that China will no longer be the "base camp" for Bitcoin mining?
Barry Silbert, founder of New York-based Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager, told investors that Bitcoin production is shifting from China, which currently dominates Bitcoin mining, to North America, Reuters reported on Feb. 11.
Silbert said that in the last three to six months, he has seen bitcoin mining activities shift from China to the United States and Canada. But he did not explain why this shift occurred.
Reuters reported that mainstream investors such as pension funds or asset management companies are hesitant to invest in Bitcoin due to concerns about Bitcoin's volatility, security vulnerabilities and lack of transparency. But since its birth more than a decade ago, Bitcoin has been favored by enthusiasts and retail investors. Now, hedge funds and trading companies are also increasingly interested in Bitcoin. In the era of the lowest interest rates, many people are attracted by Bitcoin's high returns.
According to a report by digital asset management company CoinShares, Chinese bitcoin miners currently control about two-thirds of the crypto network's processing power. This advantage allows Chinese miners to produce a larger number of bitcoins and also stimulates demand for mining tools in China.
Regarding Hilbert's views, many industry insiders in the Bitcoin mining industry told The Paper that they disagreed.
An industry insider said, "Labor and electricity are expensive in the United States and Canada, which is far worse than Xinjiang."
A miner told The Paper that the cost of Bitcoin mining mainly comes from the investment in mining machines, logistics and freight, hosting fees (including electricity fees), machine depreciation, and machine maintenance. Among them, the hosting fee (including electricity fees) accounts for the highest proportion, up to 45%.
When asked whether Bitcoin mining will be transferred overseas in the future, many industry insiders are not optimistic. A person engaged in Bitcoin mining machine manufacturing said: "Overseas, the cost is still very high, and there are many problems."
"I talked to my friends about overseas mining farms before the New Year. Some of my friends have opened mining farms in Iran, Russia and Malaysia, but the political situation overseas is unstable and there will be great changes." The miner said, "In addition, I have a Malaysian customer who asked me how many times I bought my obsolete machines. When I changed to S9 the year before last, I sold all the obsolete S7 to him. I have always been curious, how can S7 still mine? How can it still make a profit? He told me that Malaysia has free electricity. Later, he kept inviting me to build a mining farm in Malaysia. He can get all the connections and all the electricity is free. I think the risk is big, so I have never agreed. I only recently learned that the so-called free electricity is actually stolen electricity. Theft of electricity for mining in Malaysia has reached a certain scale. Even if it is discovered and the police are called, they are too lazy to deal with it. Even if they come, they will at most fine me and settle it, and there will be no sentence or anything. The cost of crime is too low."

Editor-in-charge: Zheng Jingxin

Proofreading: Yu Chengjun