Bitmain Expands in South America as Its Market Share Drops to 66%

Bitmain, the world’s largest crypto mining hardware firm, expands its distribution in South America by partnering with two crypto mining consulting firms.

Bitmain, the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining firm, is expanding its distribution in South America by partnering with two crypto mining consulting firms.

The Chinese mining mogul will extend its global exposure with Fastblock, which will be the primary distributor in Brazil, and Bit5ive, a Miami-based firm that will be distributing Antminers to over 30 countries in Latin, Central America and the Caribbean, Bitmain announced Dec. 12.

Quick take on Bitmain’s new distributors

Bit5ive provides major crypto mining services — sells, hosts and supports crypto mining hardware — since its foundation in 2013. The company will be distributing Bitmain’s products using the official distributor license in South America, Bit5ive’s CEO and co-founder Robert Collazo noted.

Fastblock, which has been providing mining consulting services since 2014, intends to bring its blockchain expertise from managing over 20 mining plants, according to the firm’s CEO and co-founder Bernardo Schucman.

Antonio Oliveira, senior vice president and CTO at Bit5ive, declined to comment on the numbers or client purchase regions in an email to Cointelegraph.

Fastblock hasn’t responded to Cointelegraph’s attempts to reach out at the time of publication. This article will be updated pending any new information.

Bitmain’s market share by hashrate reportedly dropped from 75% to 66%

The news comes amidst new reports revealing that Bitmain’s market share by hashrate has dropped from around 70% to 66% from June to early December 2019. The data comes from the study “The Bitcoin Mining Network” by London-based digital asset manager CoinShares shared with Cointelegraph Dec. 12.

Meanwhile, Bitmain’s own estimations claim that the company’s market share accounted for 75% of the global crypto hardware market as of 2017, the report notes.

While the Chinese giant’s dominance over crypto mining market has slipped since 2017, the overall trend of growth in China has continued. As reported by Cointelegraph, Chinese Bitcoin miners now control as much as 66% of global hash rate, which is the highest recorded by CoinShares since the firm started monitoring the measure in 2017.