Core Scientific, one of the largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations in North America is set for a public listing on Nasdaq. According to CNBC on Wednesday, Core has inked a $4.3 billion merger with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp — a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Apart from the planned valuation, other listing details like trading ticker and the start of actual public trading are yet to be revealed as of the time of writing. The SPAC merger and subsequent Nasdaq listing will see Core join the ranks of fellow publicly-traded Bitcoin mining companies in the United States like …

Graphics processing units (GPUs) have become a little cheaper in July amid a continued downtrend in the price of Ether (ETH). According to a review by TechSpot, GPU prices across popular graphics cards are slightly lower in July than they were in June. The lower prices in July are a continuation of the steady decline in GPU prices since the onset of the current crypto market downturn. Indeed, with ETH tanking from over $4,000 in May to below $2,000, mining profitability has also tapered significantly. According to data from BitInfoCharts, Ether mining profitability is down about 80% from its May …

An exchange-traded fund focusing on more environmentally friendly crypto mining operations and infrastructure has been launched in the United States. The new Viridi Cleaner Energy Crypto-Mining and Semiconductor ETF started trading on Tuesday, July 20, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘RIGZ’. The product is part of growing efforts to attract mainstream investors with a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Viridi Funds, which launched the new investment product, stated that the fund also invests in crypto mining infrastructure businesses and semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, Nvidia Corp., and Advanced Micro Devices, according to …

China’s ongoing crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) mining resulted in a mass relocation of mining operations out of the country and it has led to a more than fifty percent drawdown in the Bitcoin network hashrate from an all-time high of 197.9 exahash per second (ehash/s) on April 15 to its current rate at 97 ehash/s. One token that was hit especially hard by the hashrate drop was the Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST), a project that collateralized the Bitcoin hashrate with each token representing 0.1 TH/s of Bitcoin mining power. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that BTCST …

The ongoing United States-China trade war is in its fourth year. Former U.S. President Donald Trump saw different results from what he initially expected: America has taken a hit from higher tariffs and sanctions against Chinese companies and hasn’t benefited from it nearly to the same extent. It has cost the country up to 245,000 jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce calculated that the situation puts the exports of each state at risk. For example, the damage to Florida’s exports alone has already reached $1.9 billion. At the same time, China was taking a smarter approach: It not only imposed …

Last week, Cointelegraph reported on the seizure of 3,800 PlayStation consoles allegedly being used to mine cryptocurrency. The confiscated gaming units were among a stash of hardware discovered by Ukrainian authorities during a raid on a farmhouse accused of tampering with electric meters to steal power from the local grid. Based on the initial reports at the time, the PS4 consoles, graphics cards, processing units and other hardware found at the scene was being used for illegal crypto mining operations. However, according to an investigation by Ukrainian business publication Delo, the seized PlayStation consoles were being used to generate content …

Amid the ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency mining in China, mining new Bitcoin (BTC) continues getting easier as BTC has experienced another mining difficulty drop. On July 18, the Bitcoin network posted its fourth consecutive negative adjustment of mining difficulty, dropping 4.8%, according to data from Bitcoin explorer BTC.com. The latest mining difficulty adjustment occurred at block 691,488, reducing the difficulty rate from 14.4 trillion to 13.7 trillion, the lowest level recorded since June 2020. The difficulty metrics have now almost halved over the past two months, after reaching over 25 trillion on May 13. The latest Bitcoin mining adjustment follows …

Even before China finally wielded the ban hammer on crypto mining, Bitcoin (BTC) miners in North America had been building up their capacity amid efforts to gain a larger share of the global hash rate distribution. From building bigger data centers to acquiring hardware inventories, these establishments have been making concert efforts to balance the hash-power dichotomy between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. North American Bitcoin miners often have to contend with energy usage concerns as well and some have been keen to partner with oil and gas firms, becoming buyers of last resort for flared gas. Indeed, American oil …

Authorities in Malaysia destroyed more than $1.2 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs after they were confiscated for operating illegally. In a video posted today from local news outlet DayakDaily, police in the city of Miri on the island of Borneo and the Sarawak Energy company arranged for a steamroller to run over 1,069 Bitcoin (BTC) miners. The rigs were reportedly confiscated from residents of Malaysia attempting to illegally mine the cryptocurrency using stolen electricity between February and April. According to a Friday report from Malaysian newspaper The Star, the disposal of the mining machines — worth roughly $1.26 million …

A major cryptocurrency and blockchain association in Russia is launching a project to bring global crypto mining operations to the country amid a Chinese crypto mining crackdown. The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, or RACIB, announced an initiative aimed at transferring global computing resources for crypto mining to the Russian Federation. More information on the project is expected to be released at a later date, a spokesperson for RACIB told Cointelegraph. In order to promote and implement the project, RACIB is closely cooperating with Russian government authorities and state corporations, forming a range of joint working groups …

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations. It has now been two months since the crypto crackdown and subsequent enforcement began. Most new stories are now just the trickling down of earlier national policies being enforced at a provincial level. The latest example was from the Anhui provincial government, as it announced a set of measures to reduce energy consumption, with cryptocurrency mining listed among the culprits. Anhui is a small province east of Shanghai, …

China’s crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) mining due to energy consumption concerns is widely regarded as the trigger for the miners’ exodus from Asia to Western countries. But new research by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance suggests that the shift in mining power started before China’s renewed scrutiny. Reuters reported that China’s total computing power connected to the Bitcoin network, or hash rate, fell from 75.5% in September 2019 to 46% in April 2021, before the Asian country even officially announced the mining crackdown. During the same 18-month period, the United States quadrupled its share of the global Bitcoin hash …