Russia becomes world's third largest Bitcoin miner

Russia has become the world's third largest bitcoin miner. Russia's share in global mining nearly doubled from September 2019 to August 2021 from 5.9 to 11.2 percent, experts with the University of Cambridge Business School said.

Russia's share in bitcoin mining increased significantly in June, when the volume of mining in the leading country — China — sharply decreased due to the measures taken by the Chinese government. Several large companies stopped working at the same time. As for Russia's hashrate indicators (the total computing power of equipment connected to the network), the average monthly indicator increased from 5.2 to 13.6 Eh/s during the year, and from June to August 2021 — it increased by 2.9 Eh/s.

According to Cambridge specialists, the mining of bitcoins in China came to naught in July, and the United States took the lead instead. Since the partial ban of cryptocurrencies in China in May 2021, the US share of the aggregate hashrate has grown from 17.8 to 35.4 percent. In August 2021, the capacity of the equipment of US miners was 428 percent greater than in September 2020.

Kazakhstan took the second position on the list. In July, Kazakhstan took the third place in the world cryptocurrency mining, having left Russia behind as well.

When the Chinese authorities launched the campaign to suppress cryptocurrency-related activities, miners started leaving the country and headed to cheap energy regions. Many of them opted for the United States, which could contribute to the growth of mining among the Americans.

China finally banned cryptocurrencies in late September. The People's Bank of China called all activities related to digital currencies illegal and promised to take tough measures to suppress their trade.