The Bitcoin mining industry entered April 2021 at unprecedented scale, with the network hashrate pushing toward all-time highs and a single country — China — responsible for approximately 46% of all global Bitcoin mining activity, according to estimates from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
As Bitcoin traded at around $58,758 on April 4, 2021, the combination of soaring prices and robust mining infrastructure created a powerful feedback loop that defined the first quarter of what would become one of the most significant years in cryptocurrency history.
TL;DR
- China accounted for approximately 46% of global Bitcoin hashrate as of April 2021
- Bitcoin mining difficulty was near record levels, reflecting intense competition among miners
- BTC price of $58,758 made mining exceptionally profitable despite rising difficulty
- The network processed over $50 billion in 24-hour trading volume
- Visa announced USDC settlement on Ethereum, signaling mainstream crypto infrastructure adoption
China’s Mining Dominance: The Numbers Behind 46%
The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index provided the most authoritative data on mining geography in early 2021. China’s 46% share of the global hashrate was distributed primarily across regions with access to cheap electricity — Xinjiang province leveraged abundant coal-fired power, while Sichuan province benefited from seasonal hydroelectric surpluses during the wet season.
This geographic concentration would prove to be one of the most consequential structural features of the Bitcoin network. Within months, China’s regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency mining would dramatically reshape the global distribution of hashpower, forcing a massive migration of mining operations to North America, Central Asia, and elsewhere.
But in early April 2021, Chinese miners operated at full capacity. The network’s total hashrate was climbing steadily, with mining difficulty adjustments keeping pace to maintain the approximately 10-minute block interval that underpins Bitcoin’s monetary policy.
Mining Economics at $58,000 Bitcoin
With Bitcoin trading at $58,758 and the block reward still at 6.25 BTC (prior to the 2024 halving), miners were generating approximately $367,000 in revenue per block — a figure that covered even the most expensive electricity costs with substantial margins. This profitability drove intense competition for the latest ASIC mining hardware, particularly Bitmain’s Antminer S19 series and MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M30 series.
The mining equipment shortage became so acute that secondary market prices for even older-generation machines skyrocketed. Major mining operations in China, the United States, and Kazakhstan were placing orders months in advance, creating a supply chain bottleneck that would persist throughout the bull market.
The “Kimchi Premium” and Asian Mining Demand
Adding to the mining complex narrative, the so-called “Kimchi Premium” — the price premium for Bitcoin on South Korean exchanges — surged to 11% in early April 2021. Data from CryptoQuant showed Bitcoin trading significantly above global averages on Korean platforms like Bithumb, the world’s seventh-largest exchange by trading volume at the time.
Analyst Joseph Young noted that the premium’s resurgence echoed patterns from Bitcoin’s 2017 bull run, when Korean exchanges saw Bitcoin prices exceeding $24,000 while the global average was around $20,000. The return of this premium signaled strong retail demand across Asia, further incentivizing mining operations to maintain maximum output.
Infrastructure Milestones: Visa and the Stablecoin Revolution
The same week, Visa announced it would begin settling transactions in USDC on the Ethereum blockchain — making it the first major payment network to use a stablecoin as a settlement currency. Crypto.com was Visa’s initial partner for the program, eliminating the need to convert cryptocurrency holdings to fiat before settlement.
Visa’s chief product officer Jack Forestell described the announcement as “a major milestone in our ability to address the needs of fintechs managing their business in a stablecoin or cryptocurrency.” For the mining sector, this development represented yet another validation of the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem that mining operations support.
Network Security and Difficulty Adjustments
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty — the metric that determines how computationally challenging it is to find a valid block — was maintaining historically high levels in early April. The difficulty adjustment algorithm, which recalibrates every 2,016 blocks (approximately every two weeks), ensured that the influx of new mining hardware was matched by proportionally harder puzzles to solve.
This self-correcting mechanism is one of Bitcoin’s most elegant design features. As more hashpower joins the network, difficulty increases, maintaining the target block time and ensuring predictable issuance of new Bitcoin. In April 2021, with China’s massive mining farms running at full capacity and new operations coming online globally, the difficulty was climbing in step with the price rally.
Why This Matters
The state of Bitcoin mining in April 2021 represents a critical inflection point. Within months, China’s mining ban would force a dramatic geographic redistribution of hashrate — an event that ultimately strengthened Bitcoin’s decentralization narrative. The record-high hashrate and difficulty levels of early April 2021 demonstrated the enormous capital investment flowing into Bitcoin infrastructure, while the combination of $58,000 prices and 6.25 BTC block rewards created a golden era for mining profitability that would not last.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency mining involves significant risk and technical complexity. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
46% in China and within months the ban wiped it all out. Xinjiang coal and Sichuan hydro were the backbone of BTC mining.
BTC at $58,758 with mining difficulty near record levels. The profitability was insane even with the competition.
the Visa USDC settlement announcement flew under the radar because everyone was focused on the hashrate numbers. that was actually the bigger long-term story