Floods hit significant crypto farm in China

A recent flood in China’s Sichuan region appears to have hit a large local crypto farm. The hash power for Bitcoin is said to have fallen sharply for a while. Images of computer equipment likely destroyed by the water have surfaced on Twitter.

Eric Meltzer, a partner of the Chinese blockchain fund INBlockchain, previously posted a photo showing a large amount of computer equipment is on display which can probably be written off. According to the website Cryptoslate, among others, the floods caused a significant dip in Bitcoin’s total hashpower for two days; it dropped from 43 million to 30 million Th/s. Chinese cryptocurrency news platform Golden Finance reportedly reported that the flooding in Sichuan has resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of mining rigs.

Chinese meteorologists warned last week of heavy rainfall in large parts of the country, predicting that it could lead to economic damage. Storms have hit 48 cities and districts in Sichuan and Shandong. The Sichuan region is known as the ‘bitcoin mining capital’ of China. Partly due to the cool climate and the large amount of hydroelectric energy, this region is popular for crypto farms, but the farms are also located in mountainous areas with many water flows. More than seventy percent of the global hashpower for Bitcoin is located in China.