Impacted By China's Crypto Mining Ban, Thailand's Crypto Mining Soars

Crypto mining activity in Thailand is increasing. (photo credit: pixabay)

JAKARTA - Retail cryptocurrency mining in Thailand appears to have seen an uptick due to the capitulation of Chinese miners sparked by the country's new crypto ban imposed in September.

Thai entrepreneurs and cryptocurrency businesses are increasingly taking advantage of Chinese miners to get rid of their crypto mining machines, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday, December 29.

“When China banned crypto, we were overjoyed,” said a Thailand-based Bitcoin (BTC) fan turned miner, as quoted by Cointelegraph.

The miner, who asked not to be named, claims to have set up a small solar-powered crypto mining unit for around $30,000. "I made it all back in three months," he said.

Another industrial entrepreneur, Pongsakorn Tongtaveenan, started a retail business for crypto mining tools in Thailand, reportedly selling hundreds of Chinese application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners to small local investors.

According to Pongsakorn, the price of ASICs, such as the Bitmain Antminer SJ19 Pro, fell 30% due to the exit of Chinese miners before returning to normal amid increasing local demand.

Pongsakorn believes that the rising popularity of retail crypto mining in Thailand is fueled by people seeking a stable income during the pandemic as well as investors becoming increasingly optimistic about the future of digital assets.

“Bitcoin is the gold of the digital world. But mining rigs are like gold mining stocks – you get paid dividends according to the price of gold,” he said.

Thailand is not the only country whose crypto mining development has benefited from the exit of Chinese crypto miners. Countries like the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia have seen a huge influx of new crypto mining operations due to China's crypto crackdown.

The rising popularity of crypto mining in Thailand goes hand in hand with booming local cryptocurrency adoption, with turnover at several local crypto exchanges surging to US$6.6 million in November 2021 from just US$538 million last year.

The institutional demand for crypto in Thailand is also growing significantly. In early November, Thailand's oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank, paid 537 million US dollars to buy a 51% stake in BitKub, Thailand's largest crypto exchange.