Beijing's ban on cryptocurrency transactions and mining operations from this past summer fueled the U.S. to replace China as the world's largest bitcoin (BTC-USD) miner even with continued scrutiny from regulators. At the end of August, the U.S. accounted for 35.4% of the global hash rate — more than double the activity seen in April — while China's share of BTC mining has effectively hit zero, down from as high as 75% in September 2019, according to a study from Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Countries including Ireland and Germany have also recently seen their hash rates rise, likely driven by miners using virtual private networks or proxy servers that make it appear the computers are operating in another country, Bloomberg notes. In addition, Kazakhstan's hash rate increased to 18.1% in August from 8.2% in April, while the Russian share rose to 11% from 6.8% over the same period. Bitcoin
