Bangkok, Thailand – The moment the axe fell on China’s massive cryptocurrency mines, Thai entrepreneur Pongsakorn Tongtaveenan was ready to swoop – quickly buying up redundant computer processors needed to retrieve Bitcoin from the network and shipping them to Southeast Asia.
“Chinese miners got rid of their machines and the price collapsed by 30 percent,” Pongsakorn told Al Jazeera.
Prices have now returned to more than $13,000 for the new “miners” – the computer hardware that solves the complex math puzzles which release the Bitcoin rewards from the network.
Still, Pongsakorn, 30, has been able to sell hundreds of units across Thailand as small players jump into cryptocurrencies as China cracks down on the lucrative market.
In September, Beijing banned all cryptocurrency trading and mining amid concerns virtual currencies were “breeding illegal and criminal…
