BIT Mining, formerly known as 500.com, a Shenzhen-based online sports lottery company that pivoted on bitcoin mining last year, has already shipped some of its equipment to Kazakhstan.
It's just a matter of time and companies will reorganize
The New York Stock Exchange-listed mining company said Monday in an announcement that it had delivered its first batch of mining equipment to the Central Asian country. The first batch already shipped had 320 bitcoin mining machines with a total computing power of 18,2 petahashs per second and is expected to be operational by June 27, BIT Mining said. It will ship two more lots with a total of 2.600 bitcoin miners by July 1 to the same facility.
The move follows a government order last week from China's Sichuan hydroelectric hub to close 26 bitcoin mining facilities as an initial target, which included a subsidiary of BIT Mining. It is an example of the rapid response many Chinese bitcoin miners are taking in reaction to recent orders given in Xinjiang and Sichuan.
BIT Mining said in the announcement that its indirect subsidiary, Ganzi Changhe Hydropower Consumption Service Co, received a notice from State Grid Sichuan Ganzi Electric Power Co. on Saturday, informing the company that its power supply would be suspended. " starting at 9:00 ″. pm Beijing time, June 19. "
“The Ganzi Changhe data center has since suspended its operations. Data centers in Sichuan, including the Ganzi Changhe data center, contributed approximately 3% of the company's total revenues in May 2021, ”BIT Mining added in the announcement.
And she won't be the only one moving
Ganzi is one of three mountainous prefectures in western Sichuan province near Tibet that was known to host bitcoin mining farms due to their abundant hydroelectric resources.
In fact, BIT Mining's Ganzi Changhe data center was among 26 bitcoin mining facilities on the Sichuan government's shutdown order issued last Thursday. As previously reported, the majority of the entities on the list had previously been authorized by the local government to legally operate mining facilities in Sichuan's hydroelectric power consumption industrial demonstration zones.
Another company on the list that has stood out is called Shutian Information Technology, which is wholly and directly owned by the Chinese State Assets Supervision and Administration. This meant that Chinese state capital fully funded and supported the development of the Shutian mining plant.
BIT Mining itself is indirectly backed by some state-owned capital, as was explained last year when the company formally revealed its pivot which had been in the works since early 2019.
Last month, days after the State Council of China's central government released a comment on the meeting on cracking down on bitcoin trading and mining, BIT Mining has already announced that it wants to invest in mining facilities in the US state of Texas and also in Kazakhstan through joint ventures with local partners.
