Bitcoin miners in China’s Xinjiang province are closing shop amid government scrutiny, taking as much as 100 EH/s of mining equipment offline, according to industry sources.
“[Bitcoin’s] computing power dropped by 100 [EH/s] compared to yesterday … at least 400,000 machines have been shut down,” a Nano Labs team member posted on December 14, sounding the alarm.
Per Luxor’s Hashrate Index at the time of publication, Bitcoin’s 7-day average hashrate has fallen 5.6% from 1,125 EH/s to 1,062 EH/s since December 12.
Blockspace confirmed the news with multiple industry sources. One source, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that “approximately 100 EH/s is going offline and entering an extended inspection phase initiated by the central government.”
“If the likelihood of resuming operations remains low, miners may liquidate newer hydro units as well as S19 XPs in the region,” the source said. They continued to say that many miners voluntarily shut down operations following a CCP investigation into operators who were promoting their mining sites on social media like TikTok and Rednote.
Kevin Zhang, the Head of Asia at Nakamoto Holdings and a former VP at bitcoin mining pool Foundry, indicated that the number of displaced bitcoin mining computers could be as high as 500,000, representing 2 GW of power for the computers and related infrastructure.
Using the Antminer S19 as a baseline for operations in Xinjiang, Blockspace conservatively estimates that the shutdown could represent a wind down of 1.3 – 1.63 GW of bitcoin mining computers.
The Chinese government instituted a province-by-province ban of bitcoin mining in 2021, but a system of favoritism for those close to the CCP has ensured pockets of mining remain in the country. Luxor’s Hashrate Index estimates that Chinese miners still operated roughly 14% of bitcoin’s hashrate.
In addition to the shutdowns in Xinjiang impacting Bitcoin’s global hashrate, cold snaps in the U.S. have put pressure on power prices across the states, prompting domestic bitcoin miners to curtail their power draw.
Edit December 15, 2025 11:34 AM ET: Included additional commentary from sources regarding miners advertising their sites on Chinese social media.
Edit December 15, 2025 12:52 PM PT: Added commentary on the impact of winter storms on U.S.-based mining operations.
