CoinPost reports that China will once again shut down a large number of Bitcoin mining machines, affecting approximately 400,000 machines. On December 14, Kong Jianping, former chairman of mining machine manufacturer Canaan Technology, posted on the social media platform X that Bitcoin mining farms in Xinjiang are being shut down one after another, and the news quickly attracted attention in the cryptocurrency community.
On December 15, Kong Jianping further stated that the total hashrate of the Bitcoin network dropped by approximately 100 EH/s in just one day, a decrease of about 8%. Based on the average hashrate of approximately 250 Tera Hash/s per mining machine, he estimated that at least 400,000 Bitcoin mining machines had ceased operation, a considerable number.
Statistics from third-party data platforms also show abnormal hashrate fluctuations. CoinWarz data shows that as of December 7th, the Bitcoin network hashrate remained at a high level of approximately 1.2 ZH/s, but it plummeted to approximately 900 EH/s on the 15th. Notably, the hashrate decline did not last long, quickly rebounding to approximately 1.237 ZH/s by the 16th, close to previous levels. It is currently impossible to confirm whether this hashrate fluctuation is directly causally related to the closure of mining farms in Xinjiang, but the high degree of overlap in timing has sparked market speculation.
China once accounted for 75.5% of global Bitcoin mining.
In fact, due to the unpredictable nature of Chinese policies, cryptocurrency mining activities in China have experienced repeated shutdowns and resumptions in recent years. A Reuters report published in November 2025 indicated that Bitcoin mining activities had quietly resumed in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province, making China once again the world's third-largest Bitcoin mining center, accounting for approximately 14% of global computing power. However, on the 28th of the same month, the People's Bank of China convened a meeting with 13 government departments, including the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security, reiterating its commitment to continuously increasing its crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activities, sending a clear signal of tightening control.
As of now, the Xinjiang local government has not issued any official statement regarding the closure of mining farms or the scale involved, leaving the situation shrouded in uncertainty. Historically, China long dominated the global Bitcoin mining industry. According to data from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, as of September 2019, China's Bitcoin mining hashrate accounted for a staggering 75.5% of the global total, firmly holding the top spot. However, a fundamental shift occurred in 2021. In September of that year, 11 departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued a notice to "rectify" virtual currency "mining" activities, officially classifying cryptocurrency mining as an industry to be phased out and launching a nationwide crackdown. Subsequently, large-scale mining farms in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, and other regions were shut down, and China's Bitcoin mining market share nearly disappeared in a short period.
China bans cryptocurrency mining; Bitcoin price drops in response.
When news of China's complete ban on cryptocurrency mining was announced, the price of Bitcoin initially fell by about 9%, dropping to around $40,700. However, with the activation of Bitcoin's automatic network difficulty adjustment mechanism, overseas miners quickly replenished their computing power, and the market soon returned to balance. The price of Bitcoin rebounded to around $43,000 the following week.
After entering 2025, the Chinese government's attitude towards the crypto industry seemed to have softened somewhat and become more exploratory. On August 1 of the same year, Hong Kong's stablecoin regulatory law officially came into effect, with financial regulators introducing an issuance licensing system, attracting several Chinese tech giants, including Ant Group and JD.com, to plan the launch of stablecoin products pegged to the RMB.
However, just two months later, news broke that the People's Bank of China and the Cyberspace Administration of China had ordered relevant companies to suspend their stablecoin issuance plans. The Financial Times analysis suggests that Chinese regulators have expressed high vigilance regarding the potential for private institutions to issue currency, which could undermine monetary sovereignty.
Against this backdrop, the brief resurgence of mining activities in Xinjiang, followed by recent reports of another shutdown, is seen by the market as a further tightening of China's cryptocurrency policy. Whether China will loosen restrictions or maintain a limited gray area remains unclear.
This article, "China Issues Warning of Large-Scale Closure of Bitcoin Mining Farms! Bitcoin May Fall in Response," first appeared on ABMedia, a ABMedia .
