Overview of the bitcoin industry. How are Marathon, Riot, Core Scientific, CleanSpark and others doing at the dawn of halving?
Rise in bitcoin VS rise in hashrate
Bitcoin miners were able to enjoy a breath of fresh air again last month, with BTC gaining more than 33%.
The gains obtained thanks to the appreciation of bitcoin were, however, slightly reduced by the increase in the hashrate. The latter continues to break records as the halving approaches.
Miners are pushing their old ASICs to the max before they are no longer profitable. Especially since a new generation of ASIC is arriving with Bitmain’s S21 and the newcomer Teraflux.
As a result, the difficulty of mining rose by more than 9% in October, after an average increase of almost 4% per month since the start of the year.
Publicly listed miners have collectively mined 5,643 BTC (Hive not included). Some sold all or part of their production, or even more. In total, 5,858 BTC were sold in October, or 104% of production.
Only a handful of miners managed to save part of their harvest. Marathon was able to set aside 33% of its 1202 BTC mined. Followed by BitFarms (14%), Cleanspark (11%), Sato (8%) and Riot (4%).
Here is a summary table of the main operational metrics for each miner:
Marathon
With 19.1 EH/s operational (4 additional EH/s waiting to be electrified), Marathon is in the lead. Once the industry leader, its competitor Core Scientific is now far behind with 15 EH/s. The podium is completed by Riot and its 11.3 EH/s.
With 1,202 BTC mined in October, Marathon captured 4% of all BTC mined (~30,000 BTC). Its bitcoin production increased by 467% compared to last year! Or 39 BTC per day.
Note that the miner is at the forefront of innovation by setting up on landfills. The goal is to capture the methane that emanates from it to burn it in an electricity generator and thus power ASICs.
Our article on the subject: Bitcoin reduces methane emissions
Marathon is full of ideas for reusing the heat produced by ASICs to ultimately achieve $0 electricity bills:
“Our ultimate goal is zero-cost energy. How ? […] By repurposing heat generated by ASICs for greenhouse heating, shrimp farming and other forms of low-intensity industrial thermal processes”declared its CEO Fred Thiel.
As of October 31, Marathon held 13,967 bitcoins. Or $464 million. To which are added 156 million in cash.
Core Scientific
The former number 1 in the industry is getting his head above water, helped by the end of the bear market. The miner is expected to clear its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in January. To be continued post halving…
“Our 724 megawatts of installed power and our total production in October of more than 1,300 bitcoins (owned + hosting) continue to place us among the largest bitcoin miners in North America”said Adam Sullivan, general manager of Core Scientific.
“In addition to our size, the quality and capabilities of our team sets us apart in our industry and positions us for efficient growth into the next halving and beyond. »
Our article about the recent interview with its CEO Adam Sullivan: Bitcoin – How is Core Scientific preparing for halving?
Core mined 910 BTC of its own and sold 977, or 107% of its production. Since the miner holds 0 BTC in reserve, this 7% comes from his hosting activity (6.4 EH/s).
Riot
Riot produced 458 Bitcoins and sold 440. However, its reserve remains solid, at 7,345 BTC. The miner also holds $254 million in cash.
Note that Riot has the particularity of having a lucrative erasure contract with its electricity supplier. The miner is in fact compensated for stopping consuming electricity. These credits represented the equivalent of 93 BTC.
The objective is to reach more than 20 EH/s by mid-2024, compared to 11 Eh/s currently. Riot signed MicroBT in June for 33,280 ASICs. This initial order was recently updated to replace 6,000 MicroBT M56S++ miners with 6,000 more efficient MicroBT M66 miners.
The good pace of repairs to infrastructure damaged last winter should make it possible to quickly deploy this hashrate. More than 106,600 ASICs were in operation at the end of October, compared to 98,700 ASICs the previous month and 65,120 ASICs a year ago.
Recent interview with Riot CEO:
HUT8
Hut 8 is another heavyweight in the sector with 9,113 BTC in reserve. The miner produced 112 in October, but sold 365, 3.25 times more.
These expenses are largely linked to its upcoming merger with US Bitcoin Corp. The name of the new entity will be Hut 8 Corp.
The current strategy is vertical integration through the acquisition of its own energy sources. Hut 8 intends to purchase 4 gas plants.
To see if this tactic is the right one given the volatility of gas prices. Agile miners like the French BigBlock (BBGS) making the effort to seek out surplus renewable energy from all over the world will certainly benefit as time passes.
The second knives CleanSpark, BitFarms, Cipher
With 2311 BTC in reserve, CleanSpark is one of the rising stars. The miner mined 633 bitcoins using its 10 EH/s (89,000 ASICs) with an average efficiency of 27.3 J/TH. Most of this production was sold to finance its growth.
With the imminent deployment of new XP antminers and the expected arrival of Antminer S21, CleanSpark will consolidate its position in the industry. Its new average efficiency will be 23.5 J/Th, once these latest generation ASICs are installed. Enough to stand up to smaller miners, less efficient, but benefiting from cheaper electricity.
BitFarms is another miner that is slowly coming of age after significantly increasing its hashrate in October: 6.3 EH/s. The Canadian is one of these agile miners and now present in Argentina (54 MW). Bitfarms had a total power of 240 MW at the end of October, an increase of 31% compared to last year.
One of the particularities of BitFarms is to have repaid all its debts in anticipation of the halving. The miner probably hopes to play scavenger by buying the equipment of miners struck down by blocks at 3,125 BTC.
Having secured long-term energy contracts of 574 MW, BitFarms already has the juice to double its hashrate.
Recent interview with BitFarms COO:
Let’s finish with Cipher. The miner produced 428 BTC thanks to its 7 EH/s. He also benefited from his erasure contract. The latter brought back the equivalent of 16 bitcoins in energy credits.
Around 466 BTC were sold. His reserve reaches 516 BTC. Cipher recently acquired 1.2 EH/s of S21 miners at a price of $14/TH. The miner’s growth prospects are substantial based on its recent purchase of the 300 MW “Black Pearl” site in Texas.
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