Crackdown in China against mining and trading of cryptocurrency has created boom in mining of crypto in Thailand. The moment the axe fell on China’s massive cryptocurrency mines, Thai entrepreneur Pongsakorn Tongtaveenan was ready to swoop – quickly buying up redundant computer processors needed to retrieve Bitcoin from the network and shipping them to Southeast Asia.
“Chinese miners got rid of their machines and the price collapsed by 30 percent,” experts said.
Prices have now returned to more than $13,000 for the new “miners” – the computer hardware that solves the complex math puzzles which release the Bitcoin rewards from the network.
Still, Pongsakorn, 30, has been able to sell hundreds of units across Thailand as small players jump into cryptocurrencies as China cracks down on the lucrative market.
In September, Beijing banned all cryptocurrency trading and mining amid concerns virtual currencies were “breeding illegal and criminal activities” and posed a risk to the “economic and financial order”.
The crackdown forced some of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining operations to seek out new bases with friendly regulations and the essential ingredient of cheap electricity to run thousands of computers around the clock.
The biggest packed up and shifted operations to the United States – particularly Texas – Malaysia, Russia and Kazakhstan among other countries.
But for many smaller miners keen to quickly cut and run for fear of incurring the wrath of China’s authoritarian government, the priority was to claw back some money on their now useless computers.
That created an opportunity for entrepreneurs like Pongsakorn, who was on hand to whisk the unwanted gear – mainly the Bitmain Antminer SJ19 Pro – from Shenzhen to Thailand.
“Bitcoin is the gold of the digital world. But a mining rig is like gold mining stocks: you’re paid dividends according to the gold price,” he said.
Pongsakorn’s rigs have fuelled a cottage industry of miners across Thailand, each of whom can earn $30-40 daily from each running machine.
“There’s around 100,000 Thai miners now,” he said.
