When China banned Bitcoin mining in 2021, the hardware didn't vanish. It just found a new home. According to Bitmars CEO Summer Meng on the Bitcoin Takeover Podcast, the domestic crackdown forced ASIC distributors to pivot almost entirely to serving North American mining operations.
This geographical shift exposed a deep cultural rift. Meng explained that despite building the industry's physical backbone, most Chinese employees refused payment in Bitcoin or USDT, preferring the Yuan. State media's portrayal of Bitcoin as a scam vehicle created a workforce that secured a network whose asset they wouldn't touch.
Summer Meng, Bitcoin Takeover Podcast:
- In China, we don't really talk about Bitcoin or mining because our government's attitude is very clear.
- Even on newspapers, you seldom see news about Bitcoin, and if you see any, most of them are very negative stories related to scams.
Distributors like Bitmars now act as critical gatekeepers. Manufacturers such as Bitmain often list new hardware as sold out publicly, but distributors secure priority allocations. This secondary market controls global hardware liquidity for individual miners.
The new distribution model separates manufacturing giants from retail risk. It also underscores a global trend: hardware follows cheap power. While European investors still buy ASICs, they ship them to regions with lower energy costs. The mining exodus from China solidified North America as the primary market for the machines that secure the network.
