What is the latest news from bitcoin miners a hundred days before the halving? Who will come out on top?
Bitcoin Halving
The hashprice recently soared above $130/PH/s to the delight of miners. This bonus is explained by the on-chain shitcoin which brings in juicy transaction fees.
Halving requires, this hashprice will probably fall around $55/PH/s on April 23. Or even sooner if the hashrate continues its relentless rise (+100% in 2023…).
While waiting for D-day, TheMinerMag has just revealed what is probably the best metric to compare the competitiveness of miners: HASHCOST.
While the hashprice gives what the production of a PH/s brings in, the hashcost shows how much it costs to produce a PH/s according to the company studied.
In short, hashcost allows miners to be compared based on the efficiency of their ASICs and the cost of their electricity.
The chart below is an estimate of the hashcost for large US miners. Miners on the left of the diagram have lower costs than miners on the right.
With an average hashprice of $70 in the third quarter, all miners did well. That said, the hashprice should sink towards $55/PH/s following the halving. The margins of some miners will take a hit.
To reduce costs, it will be essential to increase the efficiency of its fleet of miners and/or obtain lower electricity rates.
Marathon
In November, Marathon was able to mine 1,187 bitcoins, an average of 39.6 bitcoins per day. 41% of this harvest was able to be put in reserve. No other miner has done better.
With 23.1 EH/s, the long-term objective has been achieved domestically. Marathon is now the largest miner in North America. The strategy is now to deploy abroad.
This was recently the case in Abu Dhabi. Marathon holds a 20% share of a 2.5 EH/s installation there. Another deployment is underway in Paraguay with an 80% share in a complex of 1,170 miners who will enjoy electricity at four cents per kWh.
However, the announcement of a huge 100 EH/s target by its competitor Riot seems to have prompted Marathon to revise its domestic target upwards. This is suggested by the very recent purchase of sites capable of delivering 390 megawatts.
“These sites offer us the opportunity to double our hashrate to approximately 50 exahashes of total operational capacity over the next 18 to 24 months”can we read in the communicated.
For the moment, Fred Thiel’s firm is at the top of many metrics:
-Hashrate
– ~14,200 BTC in reserve ($530 million)
-Geographical diversification
-Average efficiency of its ASIC fleet
-Income
Marathon is also the only miner to have its own pool. This saves around 2% of bitcoin production.
Another advantage is that Marathon financed 40% of Auradine. This American firm will provide it with the latest generation ASICs, even more efficient than those of Bitmain (15 J/TH in immersion cooling).
Riot
Riot has just announced the purchase of 18 EH/s of ASIC manufactured by the Chinese MicroBT. Mainly M66S ASICs, for an amount of $290 million. Or 66,560 miners whose deployment should begin from the second half of 2024.
Riot will then display 38 EH/s within its Texan complexes. All machines will be designed to be cooled by immersion, for an efficiency of 18.5 joules per TH/s.
As said above, the miner made headlines by claiming to want to reach 100 EH/s. This represents neither more nor less than 1/5 of the global hashrate… It is also eight times more than the 12.4 EH/s already installed.
Riot’s hashrate is up 61% from last year. At this rate, it will take almost five years to reach 100 EH/s.
For the month of November, Riot mined 552 bitcoins, an average of 18.4 bitcoins per day. The company sold 98% of its harvest (540 BTC). Its treasury remains large, with 7,258 bitcoins worth more than $270 million.
Here is an interesting discussion between David Schatz and Pierre Rochard about the intricacies of the profession, career prospects, strategic planning, immersion cooling and its benefits, etc.:
Core Scientific
The firm mined 954 BTC last month using its 150,000 ASICs. Or 12,500 BTC since the start of the year. Unfortunately, everything was sold to pay off large debts.
However, the former glory is regaining momentum, helped by the bull market. The miner expects an additional 6.6 EH/s to arrive over the next seven months. More than 370 megawatts of infrastructure will also be added to the 724 megawatts already built.
Furthermore, on Thursday, December 21, the Texan company reached an agreement in principle on the terms of a global settlement with the main stakeholders.
“The global agreement removes the main obstacles to our early exit from Chapter 11 in January”said CEO Adam Sullivan in a communicated.
More information in Adam Sullivan’s latest interview with TheMiningPod :
HUT 8 / CleanSpark / Cipher
Three weeks ago, Hut 8 Mining Corp. and USBTC have completed their merger, forming Hut 8 Corp. The new entity is now an industry heavyweight with 6 installations totaling 840 megawatts in four different states.
-839MW
-207,399 ASIC (including 75,000 owned, the rest being hosting)
-21.6 EH/s (including 7.3 EH/s own)
-9,129 BTC in reserve
-390 BTC mined in November
CleanSpark produced 666 bitcoins in November, an increase of 9% from October. Although the hashrate increased by 9% month-over-month, the miner was able to increase its production by improving the efficiency of its fleet to 26.4 J/Th.
Its ASICs worked 99.98% of the time. This is exceptional and demonstrates the efficiency of the teams of this miner installed in six different locations on the East side.
CleanSpark sold 402 bitcoins, but remains one of the miners with the largest reserves with 2,575 bitcoins ($97 million). 16 EH/s in sight by the end of the second quarter of 2024, compared to 10.1 EH/s currently.
Good interview with its CEO Matthew Schultz:
Cipher Mining has just reached a rate of 6.24 EH/s. The miner sold 391 bitcoins in November, or 90% of its production. He holds 558 bitcoins in cash ($21 million).
Cipher Mining finalized the acquisition of a new site in Texas: Black Pearl at the beginning of December. CEO Tyler Page estimates that the black pearl will become his most flagship complex with a potential of 300 MW. ASIC deployment on this site is expected to begin a little over a year from now.
Iris / BitFarms
In 2024, Iris will enter the closed circle of miners with more than 10 EH/s. The miner is currently at 5.6 EH/s, but will reach 10 EH/s next year with a fleet of S21/T21 ASICs purchased from Bitmain.
BitFarms made numerous announcements in November, including raising $60 million. We can bet that part of its new ASICs will go to Argentina where the miner enjoys very cheap electricity, at 2.1 cents per kWh (without VAT). Overall, BitFarms’ average electricity cost is 2.5 cents per kWh.
The biggest news was the order for 35,888 Bitmain T21 miners priced at $2,660 each for delivery starting March 2024. The miner also agreed to an option to purchase 28,000 T21 miners additional.
So, in addition to its cheap electricity, Bitfarms is about to significantly increase the efficiency of its ASIC fleet. In line of sight: 17 EH/s and an overall efficiency of 23 J/TH.
Here is a summary of the performance of all miners for the month of November:
We will see in April who has adopted the best strategy. In the future, we could see a breakup of these large centralized complexes into smaller, more agile entities capable of exploiting virtually free energy sources.
Miners connected to renewable energy, or operating where the heat produced by ASICs can be valorized, will certainly benefit in the long term.
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