Photo: IC

Bitcoin mining companies ramped up efforts to meet the rising demand from overseas including the US while the crypto-currency price skyrocketed, partially due to the world uncertainty over the US government's monetary easing and the pandemic.

The Bitcoin price shot up to hit a new record of over $60,000 over the weekend, although it pared by around 4 percent on Monday, remaining at an elevated level of $58,000.

Bitcoin price has grown more than 35 percent since March and nearly 110 percent since the beginning of the year.

Inspired by the soaring price, the Bitcoin mining suppliers have seen their export business enter a peak with some mining machines already sold out.

Canaan Creative, one of the world's largest mining hardware manufacturers, said in an interview in February that they had seen a jump in orders since 2020, with North America and Central Asia being the main sources of the surge in demand. In a statement that the company sent to the Global Times on Monday, the company's presale mining machines to North American market alone have reached about 120,000 units, rose by 17 percent from the middle of February.

Due to the lack of upstream chip capacity that challenged the global semiconductor supply chain, Canaan Creative has approached a number of fabs in advance, which allows them to iterate and mass produce products faster to meet market demand, according to the company.

The company also plans to operate its own mining business this year instead of just selling the mining machines, which enables them to feel free to stock up and meet the customers demand.

Growing market opportunities have been driven by US President Joe Biden's signing the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill into law, which is one of the biggest fiscal stimulus plans in US history. 

Chen Bo, director of the Digital Finance Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Monday that the US government monetary policy has boosted crypto-currency prices, as well investors' rising enthusiasm. 

"In recent years, many technology companies have put investment into the field, further pushing up the prices," said Chen, noting that given all the potentials, one could even expect the price to reach $100,000 later this year.

However, Chen noted that it will be difficult to find cheap electricity within the domestic market, and China is now going carbon neutral, so the export growth will be more pronounced for the mining companies.