China remains the global leader in bitcoin mining capacities. The United States and Russia have the second and third largest shares in the bitcoin mining market, according to recent research.

65% of the world's bitcoin hashrate is concentrated in China, according to the recent study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). Approximately half of that hashrate in China is produced in one autonomous region of Xinjiang (35.76%). China is followed by the United States (7.2%), Russia (6.9%) and Kazakhstan (6.17%). Malaysia (4.33%), Iran (3.82%), Canada, Germany, Norway, and Venezuela are also included in the top ten countries with the highest concentration of bitcoin mining capacities. The last four countries account for less than 1% of bitcoin hashrate, each one.

Aggregate data from participating mining pools represents approximately 37% of bitcoin’s total hashrate for the period from September 2019 to April 2020 included. The study is based on geo-location data of the IP addresses of hashers connecting to the largest bitcoin mining pools, which are BTC.com, Poolin and ViaBTC.

China is still attracting mining companies with cheap electricity produced by hydropower plants in regions with abundant water resources. According to the study, Sichuan province is the second-largest Chinese region by the bitcoin mining hashrate, accounting for 9.66% of the global level. Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, and Beijing also turned out to be central bitcoin mining regions, accounting for 8.07%, 5.42%, and 1.73%, respectively.

The CCAF recognizes that the study “may not be fully representative,” because “it represents only a little more than a third of the total hashrate; and second, the data is provided by three bitcoin mining pools that are all headquartered in China.”

CCAF hopes to expand the study and add data for other mining regions such as Siberia, Washington and New York in the USA, Quebec and Alberta in Canada.