In a jaw-dropping defiance of Beijing’s iron-fisted 2021 crypto crackdown, Bitcoin mining activity inside China has quietly exploded again, with new on-chain and satellite data revealing the country now commands an estimated 35–40% of global hashrate as of November 2025—second only to the United States and a full resurrection from near-zero four years ago.
Research published November 24 by Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, combined with thermal imaging from Planet Labs and power-grid anomalies flagged by state-owned utilities themselves, shows thousands of megawatts of previously “destroyed” mining equipment quietly reactivated in remote Sichuan hydropower stations, Inner Mongolia wind farms, and even abandoned coal plants in Xinjiang. Miners are operating behind elaborate facades—registered as “data centers for AI training,” “cloud rendering farms,” or “big-data carbon-credit calculation hubs”—allowing local officials to meet GDP targets while looking the other way.
The numbers are staggering. China’s share of Bitcoin hashrate collapsed from 75% in 2020 to under 1% by late 2021 after the State Council declared all crypto activities illegal. Yet by Q3 2025, Cambridge estimates 38% (±4%) of the network’s computational power originates from Chinese IP ranges and pool signatures (notably Luxor, AntPool, and ViaBTC pools that never actually left). Electricity consumption tied to mining now exceeds 25 GW nationwide—equivalent to the entire power draw of the Netherlands—much of it subsidized or off-grid through captive hydropower during the wet season.
How did this happen? Insiders describe a sophisticated cat-and-mouse ecosystem. New-generation rigs are smuggled in shipping containers labeled “ceramic tiles,” cooled by immersion in food-grade mineral oil to mask infrared signatures, and powered via private transformer stations that bypass the national grid. Provincial governments, desperate for tax revenue after the property crash, quietly issue “green computing” licenses that everyone understands are mining permits in disguise. One whistleblower in Liangshan Prefecture told Cointelegraph that local cadres receive monthly “management fees” in USDT to keep inspectors away.
The resurgence has global consequences. Bitcoin’s total hashrate hit an all-time high of 920 EH/s this month, with Chinese machines contributing the decisive margin that kept difficulty rising even during the post-halving price slump. Miners here enjoy electricity at $0.03–0.04/kWh—half the Texas average—giving them a structural edge that has driven several U.S. public miners to the brink of bankruptcy.
Beijing appears conflicted. The People’s Bank of China continues public denunciations and occasional high-profile raids, but the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has reportedly drafted internal guidelines classifying “zero-emission Bitcoin computing” as strategically valuable for absorbing surplus renewable energy. Sources say a quiet policy shift could be announced as early as 2026, effectively legalizing mining under national-security oversight.
For the Bitcoin network, China’s return is a double-edged sword: unprecedented security against 51% attacks, but a chilling reminder that decentralization can be illusory when one government can flip a switch on 40% of the hashrate. Western miners are lobbying Washington for emergency subsidies, while environmentalists rage that China’s “green mining” facade is burning through hydropower that could decarbonize heavier industries.
Four years after the world celebrated the “end of Chinese mining tyranny,” the dragon didn’t die—it went underground, grew fatter on cheap watts, and is now roaring louder than ever. The 2021 ban, it turns out, was less a kill shot than a forced hibernation.