Apparently, retail cryptocurrency mining in Thailand has received a boost due to the capitulation of Chinese miners brought about by the new mega-ban on crypto assets enforced in the country in mid-September.
Thai entrepreneurs and cryptocurrency companies have increasingly been taking advantage of Chinese miners ditching their mining rigs, Al Jazeera reported Wednesday.
“The moment China banned cryptocurrencies, we were ecstatic,” said a Thai Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiast and currently a miner on the network.
The miner, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed to have set up a small solar-powered cryptocurrency mining unit for about $ 30,000. “I got it all back in three months,” he said.
Another industry entrepreneur, Pongsakorn Tongtaveenan, started a cryptocurrency mining device reselling business in Thailand, reportedly selling hundreds of Chinese application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners to small local investors.
According to Pongsakorn, the price of ASICs like the Bitmain Antminer SJ19 Pro plunged 30% due to the departure of Chinese miners before returning to normal amid growing local demand.
Pongsakorn believes that the growing popularity of cryptocurrency retail mining in Thailand is due to people seeking a stable income amid the current pandemic, as well as investors being more optimistic about the future of digital assets.
“Bitcoin is the gold of the digital world. But a mining rig is like gold mining stocks: dividends are paid based on the price of gold,” he said.
Thailand is not the only country whose crypto-mining development has benefited from the departure of miners from China. Countries like the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia have seen a massive influx of new cryptocurrency mining operations due to Chinese crackdown.
The growing popularity of cryptocurrency mining in Thailand coincides with the boom in local crypto adoption, as the trading volume of various local cryptocurrency exchanges soared to $ 6.6 million in November 2021, versus $ 538 million last year.
The institutional demand for cryptocurrencies in Thailand has also grown remarkably. In early November, Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, paid $ 537 million to buy a 51% stake in BitKub, Thailand’s largest crypto exchange.