A recent interview with Ethan Pierse, director of the CryptoAssets Institute, said a recent government crackdown on mining facilities was due to miners illegally using electricity. By law, miners have to register with the government to use large amounts of power. Since electricity is so cheap, miners from around the world have flocked to China. 

Pierse said, "People are going around that even still and tapping into electricity where they can and siphoning that off. So basically, they see that and monitor that there are weird peaks of electricity usage in places, and they go and track it down. One miner's using the same electricity as a single household or dozens of households."

Pierse said 65% of the world's hash rate is produced in China. He said the Siachen region is responsible for 50% of that.