Chinese crypto miners make a round trip (south-north) to pursue cheap electricity every year. However, things are looking blue for northward migration this year, the country’s regulation and off-capacity of northern mining camp are getting in the way.

The wet season in Sichuan, a southern province in China usually begins in April and ends in October every year. During this time, the cost of the electricity can be as low as 0.25 yuan compared with the price of electricity is around 0.35 yuan in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia(Neimonggu). At the end of the wet season, Chinese crypto miners migrate to northern provinces like Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia which boast cheap thermal power and wind power.

The number of mining machines exceeds the upper limit of mining camps in Northern China, and some of them may be abandoned

The computing power of the whole network rises from 36.55E to 83.48E so far, an increase of 46.93E. Since May, when it entered the wet season, the computing power has increased by 30.12E in half a year. If the total net computing power (83.48E) converted to 14T Antminer S9i, it is equivalent to 6.2 million 14T Antminer S9i working online at the same time. During the wet season, an average of 400,000 new mining machines is increased every month.

At present, it is known that the capacity of the three major Chinese miner makers is all booked up for this year, which means that in the next few months, the miner holdings will continue to grow. By the end of this year, it is estimated that there will be two million mining machines to join.

By the end of October, the wet season will come to an end. As the flood season ends, millions of mining machines will face the problem of relocating in a short time. Many logistics companies in southern provinces are ready to take part in the migration of mining machines.

“The 1,000 mining machines I have were previously hosted in one mining camp. This year, the mining camp told me that there were not enough seats. So I have to host some of them to another mining camp, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of management for me.”

Said a senior miner, he noticed that the bargaining space with the mining camp was tightened. Senior miners like him can’t get the agreed price of a cent or two cheaper than the direct price as they used to.

Chinese authority is containing the crypto mining

Xinjiang is the largest crypto mining camp apart from Sichuan which accounts for about 20% of China’s total. Since this year, the governments of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia(Neimonggu) have issued several local documents related to mine construction. The core of these policies is to rectify and curb the scale of the local mining industry.

In the past, the mining camps were approved by the authority by pretended to be high-tech projects such as cloud computing and big data companies. But now, the authority has realized this trick. So it is difficult for the mining camps to get approved, which means that the new mining camps can’t enjoy the preferential policies as high-tech projects. If the mining camps buy electricity according to the price of industrial electricity, the cost of electricity will be half higher.