Bitcoin's mining power worldwide has been affected past manufacturing delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China, effectively reducing growth in the cryptocurrency'southward computing ability. Nevertheless, some Bitcoin miners based in the Asian nation have seen an increment in their market share while others struggle to keep up.

Bitmain has held its position every bit the dominant cryptocurrency mining hardware maker since 2017, merely the market may slowly be shifting over to Shenzhen-based MicroBT. The mining company sold about 600,000 units of its WhatsMiner M20 in 2019. Each unit generates most 60 terahashes per second on average, co-ordinate to MicroBT sales head Vincent Zhang.

What makes MicroBT a likely challenger for the behemoth Bitmain? According to a report from CoinDesk, coupled with Bitcoin'south cost jump final year, MicroBT's hardware was straight responsible for virtually half of all Bitcoin'southward calculating ability growth in 2019. This equates to about xxx per centum of all Bitcoin mining power worldwide.

Bitmain slowly losing ground to competitors

Bitmain has seen its share of setbacks this past year, with plans to cut fifty per centum of its workforce and the firing of co-founder and principal shareholder Micree Ketuan Zhan in October.  MicroBT's WhatsMiner M20 hardware has proven itself to be an effective challenger to Bitmain's AntMiner S17. However, Bitmain still holds approximately 65 percent of the market as of December. 12, according to an estimate by the digital asset management firm Coinshares.

In the meantime, both companies are developing more powerful engineering to compete in 2020: Bitmain with the AntMiner S19 and MicroBT with the WhatsMiner M30. MicroBT was able to outpace Bitmain in manufacturing and shipping last yr, and delays acquired past the coronavirus outbreak may adversely bear upon one company more than the other in the coming months.