China Officially Brings Back Mining: Sichuan, Inner Mongolia & Xinjiang Are Live Again

China just lifted the crypto-mining ban in its three heavyweight provinces. Starting January 1, 2026, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang will host fully legal farms powered only by hydro and solar. One week after the announcement, global Bitcoin hashrate jumped 28% to a record 1,137 EH/s, and BTC price blew past $102,000.

Beijing no longer calls mining an “energy vampire.” Now it’s officially a green-grid stabilizer. Excess power that used to get dumped into rivers during Sichuan’s rainy season or wasted on empty solar fields in Xinjiang will now feed ASICs. Hydro rates in Sichuan hit $0.003/kWh - cheaper than anywhere else on Earth.

Bitmain is already unsealing warehouses in Chengdu, Canaan is shipping Antminer S21 Hydro containers to Urumqi, and thousands of Chinese miners who fled to Texas and Kazakhstan are booking flights home. Luxor estimates China has already clawed back 14–20% of global hashrate before a single farm even flips the switch.

The green paradox is solved: every rig must run 100% renewable with quarterly CO2 audits. Xinjiang just fired up 5 GW of solar built exclusively for mining, Sichuan hooked eight dams straight to the grid, and Inner Mongolia is breaking ground on a 100 GW wind-powered mining park. This is the biggest PoW-to-renewables pivot in history.

Markets went nuclear. MARA and Riot shares mooned +42%, Bitmain is prepping a Hong Kong IPO at $15B valuation, and analysts are calling $200k BTC by end of 2026. China didn’t just come back - it came back with the cheapest, cleanest energy on the planet.

This isn’t full crypto legalization (trading still banned), but it’s the strongest bullish signal since 2021. China is mining again, and this time it’s making Bitcoin greener than American gas and Texas coal combined.