Which are the countries where most cryptocurrencies are mined? (2024)
Cryptocurrencies continue to be a promising investment for many. They need a lot of energy to be stored and mined, meaning they can only really be mined in nations or areas with a low electricity cost. Though this is getting harder to find as of the rising price of energy, there remains various places which are favourites fo prospective crypto-miners.
Bear in mind that the most recently published data is until August 2021. This data is out of date, as one of the nations listed has completely rowed back on its commitment to cryptocurrency in the months since this information was released.
What are the problems with mining so much crypto?
Clearly, vast amounts of energy is needed to keep these mines operating. What happens when access to this necesssary resource is throttled?
This became a problem in Kazakhstan, a nation in central Asia. Until August 2021 it was the second largest mining spot in the world. However, an energy crisis at the start of 2022 could terminally end the venture.
“We have not been able to operate properly since October 13 2021, when the first power cuts hit us,” Aibolat Balgozhin, BTC KZ’s chief power engineer told Rest of World. “And we are kept in the dark as to when we would be able to work at full capacity or what solutions the power grid operator, KEGOC, is going to come up with.”
VIDEO: 🇰🇿 Thousands take to the streets of Kazakhstan's largest city #Almaty, marching towards the main city administration building after a night of unprecedented unrest across the Central Asian nation that followed an energy price hike pic.twitter.com/K5OI5T3u5i
The energy crisis means the Kazakh government’s priority is no longer to court crypto investors leaving China. The government now taxes energy use by cryptocurrency mines and mining is no longer feasible.
The other, more serious, issue with needing vast amounts of energy is the effect on the environment. The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index provided by Digiconomist estimates as of April 2022 a single Bitcoin transaction takes almost 2,189 kWh to complete, or the equivalent of just over 75 days of power for the average US household.
Keeping with the Kazakh example, much of the power generated for mining was done through coal burning. Generating all this energy often comes through non-renewables, a serious problem as the market continues to grow.
Turning energy into computing power. The biggest bitcoin mining countries are: 1) The United States (40%) 2) China (15%) 3) Russia (12%) This map will look very different in 1-2 years as miners in Africa and Latin America expand operations.
Note that if we were to rank countries based on their actual number of crypto owners, India would rank first at 93 million people, China would rank second at 59 million people, and the U.S. would rank third at 52 million people.
As of the latest available information in 2024, the United States is considered to be the country that owns the most Bitcoin — according to various reports, it holds over 210K BTC. This accumulation is primarily due to legal seizures rather than direct purchases.
How Many Bitcoin Miners Are There? Slushpool has about 200,000 miners. They have 12% of the network hashrate. Assuming all pools have similar numbers, there are likely to be over 1,000,000 unique individuals mining bitcoins.
As of 2023, Lebanon is statistically the cheapest country to mine Bitcoin. Lebanon's household electricity cost allows solo miners to mine a single Bitcoin for just $266. Moreover, some citizens of Lebanon use this contrasting advantage to survive the harsh financial conditions of the country rather safely.
The biggest bitcoin mining countries are: 1) The United States (40%) 2) China (15%) 3) Russia (12%) This map will look very different in 1-2 years as miners in Africa and Latin America expand operations. A massive trend in the industry will be miners migrating toward these regions.
Known Bitcoin reserves held by governments account for 2.7% of the total 21 million supply of bitcoins, with the largest being the US Government with over 210,000 bitcoins worth more than $13bn at the time of writing.
Satoshi Nakamoto owns the most bitcoin with an estimated 1.1 million BTC. Satoshi not only invented but was also the first miner to create blocks of transactions.
Cryptocurrency awareness and ownership rates have increased to record levels: 40% of American adults now own crypto, up from 30% in 2023. This could be as many as 93 million people. Among current crypto owners, around 63% hope to obtain more cryptocurrency over the next year.
For the third year running, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, is crypto's wealthiest person. Despite pleading guilty to U.S. money laundering charges in November, CZ, as he's known, is now worth an estimated $33 billion, up from $10.5 billion last year.
Once all 21 million bitcoin are mined by the year 2140, no new bitcoin will be created. This means miners will no longer receive block rewards for adding new blocks to the blockchain. Instead, their compensation will come solely from transaction fees paid by users.
How Long Does It Take to Mine 1 Bitcoin? The reward for mining is 3.125 bitcoins. It takes the network about 10 minutes to mine one block, so it takes about 10 minutes to mine 3.125 bitcoins.
The New York Times recently equated the total power consumed by Bitcoin annually to what's used by Finland in one year. The fact is that even the most efficient Bitcoin mining operation takes roughly 155,000 kWh to mine one Bitcoin. By way of comparison, the average US household consumes about 900 kWh per month.
Bitcoin's hashprice — a metric miners use to measure the value of their compute power, hashrate — rose to $79/PH/day today, an 11% increase week-over-week from $71/PH/day. This means that miners with 1 petahash (PH) of mining equipment can now expect to earn $79 per day in revenue from these machines.
The current hashrate and power consumption on the Bitcoin (BTC) network implies an estimated mining cost of about $45,000, down from above $50,000, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report on Thursday.
Who owns the most Bitcoin in the world? The top Bitcoin holder is still believed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, who reportedly holds around 1.1 million BTC across many wallets.
A 2024 report from Security.org, found that up to 40% of American adults own crypto, up 10% from 2023's findings. That would mean over 100 million Americans are currently holding cryptocurrencies, which is very bullish news.
For the third year running, Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, is crypto's wealthiest person. Despite pleading guilty to U.S. money laundering charges in November, CZ, as he's known, is now worth an estimated $33 billion, up from $10.5 billion last year.
Summary: As of 2024, there are about 420 million cryptocurrency users globally. Of these, approximately 1.5 million individuals possess more than 1 Bitcoin, which is just 0.36% of all cryptocurrency users.
Introduction: My name is Domingo Moore, I am a attractive, gorgeous, funny, jolly, spotless, nice, fantastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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