If the purpose is to bypass currency controls, it is to get money out of China, not back in. You don't want to sell Bitcoins for yuan (though it is certainly ha

If the purpose is to bypass currency controls, it is to get money out of China, not back in. You don't want to sell Bitcoins for yuan (though it is certainly happening.) Chinese miners are spending yuan to buy mining hardware. This answers the question of why run an "unprofitable" mining operation. Rather what you are doing is converting yuan to bitcoin. The mining operation is not for profit but rather a currency conversion. How much of the mined bitcoin is being converted to dollars? If it is being sold right away, that is pushing the price down not up. If they are just sitting on it, then a cause to sell it all could push the price down hard. This same thing applies to money laundering in general. At some point, if not already, authorities would investigate who is buying massive quantities of hardware that is viable for mining. Of course there have been shortages, which PC gamers hate, so perhaps third party sellers like eBay hold more answers than nVidia. If I was making big bets on the price Bitcoin I would have my researchers trying to answer these questions above all else. Are there miners sitting on huge quantities of bitcoins who will at some point in the near future are likely to become motivated sellers? Secondly, I would be trying to figure out if any of the major exchanges are involved in fraud like Mt Gox was. Amusingly all of the bitcoin speculators equate the success or failure of bitcoin with the increase of its price. That is completely missing the point of cryptocurrency.