BTC price rebounded, mining machines were out of stock, but the mines were deserted...

At 9:30 a.m. on February 3, the A-share market, which had been suspended for the Spring Festival, opened. Affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, nearly 3,000 stocks hit the limit down. Data showed that blockchain concept stocks also plummeted by more than 9%, and only 7 of the 217 concept stocks rose.

However, looking back at this Spring Festival, Bitcoin rose by about $1,000 against the trend. At 9:30 a.m. on the 3rd, Bitcoin rose to $9,600 in a short period of time, reaching its highest price in three months. QKL123 data shows that this $1,000 has turned market sentiment from fear to greed.

On January 28, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining was adjusted to 15.47T, an increase of 4.67%. Based on this, the average computing power is calculated to be about 110E, which is the highest since the birth of Bitcoin. BTC.com predicts that the difficulty will rise to 16.13 T in 7 days, an increase of 4.31%.

Such a new year start should be a good thing for Bitcoin mining. However, affected by the epidemic, Bitcoin mining is not particularly smooth.

▲BTC.com shows the latest difficulty of Bitcoin mining

Out of stock! Mining machine prices are expected to increase in February and March

Affected by the epidemic, Bitmain, Canaan Creative, Shenma Mining Machine, and Xindong Mining Machine have all issued announcements to postpone production, delivery, and after-sales services. The current start date is generally postponed to around February 10. For mining machine companies, the impact of the epidemic mainly includes factory start-up, logistics and express delivery, and machine repair.

Canaan Creative's sales director Chen Feng told Babbitt that the epidemic has three main impacts on mining machine manufacturers.

First, at present, the major manufacturers do not have many spot mining machines on hand. Based on this, it is speculated that the price of Bitcoin mining machines will rise in February and March.

Second, the factory is temporarily unable to start operations. It is currently likely to officially start operations between February 15th and 20th, and will start operations gradually. Because not all workers will be in place, the output of mining machines in February will be affected.

Third, the delivery of mining machines mainly relies on SF Express and Deppon Logistics. Deppon has not yet recovered, and SF Express can only send express delivery, which is relatively expensive. The policy in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and other places is that foreign vehicles are not allowed to enter, which also affects freight logistics.

Chen Feng said that as far as he knows, the workers in the western mines have not yet arrived, so there are problems with the new machines going online. The embarrassing thing is that with the rise in Bitcoin prices, market demand has increased.

The situation is exactly the same for Shenma Mining Machine. Zhang Wencheng, the sales director of Shenma Mining Machine, posted on WeChat Moments: "52W/T M20S will be shipped after February 10. It will be shipped immediately after the resumption of work."

He told Babbitt that it would take time to fully return to normal, and as far as Guangdong was concerned, work would resume after February 10. Even if the goods were shipped, no one would work in the mine.

Liu Kuan is the CEO of Jiejie Mining, a company engaged in mining machine distribution and trusteeship. She told Babbitt that she can currently ship through SF Express, but the normal shipping fee is 50 yuan per order. Now she can only send by air, and the fee has risen to 155 yuan. As a distributor, she admitted that it has an impact but not a big one, at least she can still sell it for now.

No one! People outside can't get in, and people inside can't get out

Those who sell mining machines have a headache, and those who buy mining machines to mine are not very comfortable either.

Jiang Zhuoer, founder of Litecoin Mining Pool, posted on Weibo that the situation at frontline mining sites in various places is quite bad. "Transportation and materials are cut off in various places, and people cannot move around. Xinjiang is the worst. Those who enter Xinjiang are taken away for 20 days of quarantine, and companies cannot resume work. We kept half of our employees on duty before the New Year, but now we are short of manpower, and the online rate of mining machines is poor. The main impact is that some mining sites that have stopped construction and power outages have thousands of mining machines that cannot be deployed."

At present, as far as China is concerned, Sichuan's flood season has passed, and the main mining base is in Xinjiang, which has thermal power generation. However, as Jiang Zhuoer said, Xinjiang's prevention and control policies are very strict.

Yin Changming, founder of Xiaoqiang Miner, told Babbitt that Xiaoqiang Miner is a customized mining machine brand, and some of its own mining machines are mining in the mines. In response to the epidemic, they have taken measures to transfer their own computing power to customers who are currently unable to ship goods. Among the mines, Sichuan and Guizhou are not greatly affected, and the main problem is in Xinjiang.

He took a mine with 4,000 machines as an example. Originally, four maintenance personnel were arranged during the Spring Festival. They went to the mine to work and returned to the living area after get off work. As a result, due to policy, three of the maintenance personnel were restricted from entering the mine, leaving only one maintenance personnel. He could not leave the mine and could only have the staff deliver some items to him regularly.

Yin Changming said that currently, if a machine breaks down, it cannot be repaired and the operation and maintenance personnel must use the existing parts to repair it themselves. Fortunately, Xinjiang's electricity and network are relatively stable, and there has not been a large-scale loss of computing power. "I think the only problem is still the repair." He said.

The market is about to change. This is another "big test" for China's mining industry

Currently, there are about 3 months left before Bitcoin halving. The coronavirus outbreak has affected global policies and the economy, and Brexit...

Taking all these events together, this round of Bitcoin price increase is beginning to be interpreted by the market as entering the "halving time", which means that the market is beginning to be optimistic about the rise of Bitcoin.

However, will Bitcoin really benefit from the "turbulent times"? There seems to be no theoretical basis for this. Will it soar or plummet? This may be the answer everyone wants about 20202.

At present, the vast majority of global mining machine manufacturers and mining companies are in China. Affected by the epidemic, this will become a challenge for all companies.

Listed Canaan Creative, industry leader Bitmain, and rising star Shenma Mining Machine, the disaster is also an opportunity. Who can stand out in the first quarter? Who can come up with new tricks? This may be the biggest highlight of the mining industry in the future.