Bitcoin’s Hashrate Takes a Hit: Xinjiang Miners Power Down Significant Capacity
Bitcoin's global mining network just felt a tremor. A major cluster of miners in China's Xinjiang region has abruptly cut a massive chunk of its hashing power from the grid.
The Great Hashrate Shift
This isn't a routine maintenance blip. When a significant portion of the network's computational muscle goes offline, the ripples are immediate. Block times slow, mining difficulty temporarily misaligns with reality, and the entire system's security model gets a stress test. It's a stark reminder that Bitcoin, for all its digital resilience, is still physically anchored to power grids and political winds.
Geopolitics on the Blockchain
Xinjiang has long been a cornerstone of the mining map, offering cheap energy that attracted a significant concentration of hashing power. A large-scale shutdown there doesn't just reduce the total hashrate—it actively redistributes mining influence. Other global hubs, from Texas to Kazakhstan, instantly gain a larger share of the network. The 'decentralization' scorecard gets recalculated overnight.
Market Mechanics vs. Narrative
Here's where the cynical finance jab fits: Traders will frantically model the impact on sell pressure from miners, while crypto influencers will spin this as a bullish 'supply shock' narrative. The network itself just sees a puzzle getting temporarily harder to solve, then adjusts. The real story isn't on the charts; it's in the relentless, automated response of a protocol designed to withstand exactly this kind of shock. The miners in one region go quiet, and the rest of the world simply picks up the slack—no bailout, no committee, just code.
Chinese shutdown cut overall BTC mining rate
The shutdown arrives after a period of problem-free mining in China, when local pools and mining hubs emerged as global leaders. At one point, China carried over 14% of BTC hashrate.
China still carries 1,362 BTC nodes, around 2.5% of the entire network. The BTC hashrate continued to slide for a day, just as reports landed of mining farms shutting down one after the other.
BTC miners recently achieved a record of as much as 1.2Zh/s, followed by a dip to 869 EH/s. The shutdown happens at a time when miners are producing blocks with a potential loss, based on the hash ribbon indicator.
China BTC miners face local CCP investigations
The Chinese government announced a mining ban in 2021, but some regions retained their mining power. In late November 2025, China was the third-biggest source of hashrate, despite the official ban from 2021.
However, renewed threats against operations are causing miners to liquidate even relatively new hydroelectric mining farms.
According to sources cited by Blockspace, some of the newer units use S19 XP mining rigs, some of the fastest mining machines.
The increased oversight arrived after a CCP investigation into mining operators promoting their mining sites on social media, including TikTok and Rednote.
The exclusion of some of China’s miners may help other pools, further bringing down difficulty. However, the loss of trust in mining operations may hurt the reputation of the crypto sector. Over the years, the Chinese government has come out with statements in support of mining, so the current shutdown shock was unexpected.
The mining operation shutdown coincided with another downturn for BTC. The leading coin dipped below $85,000 based on general market panic. Overall, mining does not affect BTC, which is still driven by derivative trading speculation mixed with spot trading.
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