Central Asian country Kazakhstan has become one of the world’s leading hubs for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining, ranking behind the United States and China.
What Happened: This comes after China in August 2021 suspended mining and trading operations, placing the U.S. at the top — and Kazakhstan banked on the move and became the first to welcome the displaced Chinese miners.
According to Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Kazakhstan contributed to 13.22% of the total Bitcoin hash rate as of January. The U.S. contributed 37.84% and China, 21.11%. Canada stood at number four, contributing to 6.5% of the Bitcoin hash rate, followed by Germany at 3.1% and Malaysia at 2.5%.
Hashrate is defined as the computing power required by the blockchain network to process mining operations. A higher hashrate makes cryptocurrency more secure because it would take more miners — and cost more in energy and time — to take over the network.
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Kazakhstan utilizes non-renewable energy, such as oil — over 50%, coal — 28% and natural gas — 17%, until 2020, according to the International Energy Agency.
Price Action: Bitcoin is trading at $19,379.27, at the time of writing, up by 0.91% in 24 hours. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is up 2.70% in the last 24 hours, trading at $1,348.54, according to Benzinga Pro.
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