Four years after banning digital assets mining and transactions, China has quietly become one of the world’s biggest bitcoin mining centers.
Despite the 2021 ban, new data from Luxor’s Global Hashrate Map shows China now accounts for 14.06% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate, with 145 exahashes per second (EH/s), third in the world behind the U.S. and Russia.
In 2021, the Chinese government launched a broad crackdown on digital assets, including Bitcoin.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) outlawed all digital asset transactions, citing financial crime, fraud, and the potential instability that digital assets could bring to the national economy. Mining operations were quickly targeted and shut down.
But the miners never went away. Many moved their equipment to remote areas where enforcement was weaker. Xinjiang, with its cheap and stable energy, reportedly became the prime location for these secret operations.
Industry insiders now believe much of the country’s underground mining is still thriving in Xinjiang’s remote areas.
According to the Q4 2025 Luxor Global Hashrate Map, the country’s share of the world’s Bitcoin mining power increased slightly from 13.8% last quarter to 14.05% – a small but significant rise. In the same period, Bitcoin’s global hashrate surpassed 1,100 EH/s, entering a new “zettahash era”.
Related: Bitcoin Hashrate Hits 1 Zettahash per Second For First Time Ever
Data from Hashrate Index also shows this trend. The U.S. still leads with about 37.8% of global mining power and Russia follows with 15.5%, but China is a strong third despite the ban. This is how resilient and adaptable China’s mining community is.
Experts say it’s impossible to fully suppress mining. As long as one has the electricity, internet connection, and the necessary hardware, they can compete in the global bitcoin mining race.
Many believe enforcing the ban is difficult on the outskirts of big cities, and that has contributed to why China’s hashrate continues to exist.
Energy is still the biggest lure. Xinjiang’s grid and geography are perfect for secret mining. Small operations often run quietly, sometimes using renewable or surplus energy to fly under the radar.
Despite the risks of government penalties, many believe the rewards are worth it – especially with bitcoin at over $110,000 as of late 2025.
China may have banned domestic mining but it still rules the global bitcoin mining landscape. Over 95% of the world’s Bitcoin mining machines (ASICs) are made by Chinese companies like Bitmain, MicroBT and Canaan.
This manufacturing dominance gives China indirect control over most of the world’s mining. Most of the equipment, spare parts and technical expertise can be traced back to China. This means even miners overseas are heavily dependent on Chinese gear.
This has raised national security concerns in the U.S. Sanjay Gupta, chief strategy officer at Auradine, said over a million Chinese-made bitcoin mining machines, running on foreign firmware, are connected to the U.S. power grid.
He cautioned that this could “pose a potential serious cybersecurity risk” if compromised systems were ever triggered in a coordinated attack.
The U.S. government has already taken notice. Tariffs on Chinese mining hardware have been introduced and may rise to as high as 155%, according to reports. Officials argue that reducing reliance on Chinese-made devices is crucial for energy and infrastructure security.
Still, some experts caution against overestimating the threat.
Kaan Farahani, a research associate at Luxor, explained that the Global Hashrate Map primarily aims to determine how bitcoin mining activity is distributed around the world, rather than track ownership or intent.
Farahani noted that Luxor is not aware of any security issues or threats related to China’s mining operations.
