Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin miner, has announced one of its most significant expansions yet, with the purchase of 66,560 mining rigs from MicroBT. This move comes as the company prepares for the Bitcoin halving event scheduled for April 2024.
The deal, valued at $290.5 million, was disclosed in a statement by Riot on December 4, indicating an average cost of $4,360 per machine. This purchase is an extension of Riot’s initial agreement with MicroBT from June, which included a right-to-purchase option for 33,280 machines. The updated agreement now allows Riot the option to buy up to an additional 265,000 miners from MicroBT under the same terms as this new order.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot, described this order as “the largest order of hash rate” in the company’s history and expressed hope that it would significantly enhance Riot’s mining capabilities.
Of the newly acquired machines, over 48,000, or 72%, are MicroBT’s latest model, the M66S, boasting a hash rate of 250 terahashes per second (TH/s). The rest of the order includes the M66 (14,770 units) and M56S++ (3,720 units) models. Collectively, these 66,560 miners will augment Riot’s operations by an additional 18 exahashes per second (EH/s).
Riot plans to start deploying the first batch of 33,280 miners, purchased in June, in the first quarter of 2024. The latest batch of 66,560 miners is scheduled for deployment in the second half of 2024. Once all 99,840 rigs are operational, which Riot anticipates by the second half of 2025, the firm expects its self-mining hash rate capacity to reach 38 EH/s.
The upcoming Bitcoin halving event is a key driver behind Riot’s aggressive expansion, as the company aims to maximize its mining capabilities ahead of the anticipated reduction in Bitcoin block rewards.
On the stock market, Riot’s shares saw a nearly 9% increase on December 4, marking a significant rise of over 345% in 2023, as per Google Finance data.
In related industry news, Bitcoin miner CleanSpark reported a production of 666 BTC in November, a 5.2% increase from October and a 24% rise from November 2022. CleanSpark’s CEO, Zach Bradford, attributed part of this growth to increased production from fees, potentially linked to rising interest in Ordinals.
TeraWulf, another Nasdaq-listed mining company, also reported a production increase in November, mining 323 BTC, up 3% from October. The company noted that higher network transaction fees contributed to this growth, though it didn’t specifically mention the impact of Ordinals.
Lastly, Hut 8 completed its merger with U.S.-based mining firm Bitcoin Corp on November 30, forming Hut 8 Corp. The new entity began trading on the Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange on December 4. However, its stock debut experienced a downturn, falling 11.75% and 7.44% on the day, according to Google Finance.
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