Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

The breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.

What's going on, guys? It is Friday, July 2nd, and today we are discussing mining.

It's a brave new world out there, and things are happening fast.

Here's a recap in case you spent the last month, I don't know, hiking the Camino de Santiago or something, without an internet connection. Towards the middle end of May, the vice premier of China started talking about a

Bitcoin mining ban. The Twitterati initially rolled their eyes at yet another China ban's

crypto story, but, interestingly, China-based miners did not. They started spring into action

almost immediately, including liquidating some amount of

their crypto to be able to act more nimbly. Over the following month, we saw numerous state-level

implementations of a Bitcoin ban, including in a province that mines primarily with hydroelectric power.

At first, there had been questions about whether it would be solely coal-powered mining targeted by

this ban,

but it turns out that no, it was mining in general. There has been a ton of discussions about

motivations. Some have argued it's about ESG concerns and green goals. Others have said it's about

China turning their focus from attacking fintech to attacking crypto in order to clear any competition

for their digital currency.

Still, others have speculated that it's about fears of social destabilization that come

with crypto while still others say it's about cracking down on local corruption.

Whatever combination of these things and others is correct, it has happened.

As you heard on Longreed Sunday last week, the broad sense is that the great

western hash rate migration is real. That being said, there is still a ton up in the air.

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