The city’s mayor says it welcomes an exodus of miners from China amid a generalized clampdown on the industry, pointing to cheap nuclear energy as a competitive advantage, according to a CNBC report.
Fast facts:
- Mayor Francis Suarez told CNBC that the city’s clean, inexpensive nuclear energy made it suitable for cryptocurrency mining, a highly energy-intensive activity. The United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an average electricity per-kilowatt-hour cost of US$0.107 in Miami.
- However, in Yunnan, one of China’s mining hubs, hydropower energy costs less than one-third of that in Miami, at US$0.031 per kilowatt hour, according to reports citing data from the Energy Administration of Yunnan Province.
- Less than two weeks ago, Miami hosted the world’s largest cryptocurrency event, the Bitcoin 2021 conference, and its leaders now seem eager to become a new home to miners responsible for more than half of all Bitcoin production. However, Suarez told CNBC he hadn’t personally received any calls from Chinese miners.