At the end of 2024, Cango (CANG), a Shanghai-based car lending company, surprised many by entering the Bitcoin mining industry by acquiring a large amount of mining power—50 exahashes per second (EH/s)—which placed Cango among the largest Bitcoin miners in the world. This move is part of the company’s diversification strategy, as Cango had previously invested in car exports and electric vehicles. They invested $256 million in cash for an initial 32 EH/s from Bitmain and plan to issue shares worth $144 million for an additional 18 EH/s from Golden TechGen. With the new mining operations, Cango aims to harness the potential of Bitcoin mining to balance the electricity grid. Although new to this field and currently dependent on Bitmain, Cango's stock has risen over 362% in 2024 due to increased interest in the company. Cango mined 363.9 BTC in November, worth approximately $35 million. As they accumulate more experience, Cango hopes to develop a more efficient mining operation with lower costs.
In 2024, Bitcoin transactions surpassed $19 trillion, more than doubling from $8.7 trillion in 2023, marking a turnaround from two years of declining transaction volume since 2021. This surge follows a peak of around $47 trillion during the 2021 bull market. Key events in 2024 include the launch of a Bitcoin ETF fund, the halving event that took place in April, and Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of around $108,000.
Additionally, the Bitcoin network's hashrate reached a record 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s) at the beginning of 2024, though it later stabilized around 775 EH/s. Mining pools in the U.S., including Foundry USA and MARA Pool, contributed over 38.5% of the total blocks mined; however, mining pools from China still maintain dominance in hashrate. The complexities in determining hashrate dominance stem from the decentralized nature of Bitcoin mining, where miners use virtual private networks (VPNs) to disguise their true locations.
