Riot Platforms adding 33,000 Bitcoin miners before 2024 halving.
Riot Platforms, one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in the world, has spent $162.9 million to buy 33,280 “next-generation” Bitcoin miners for its facility in Texas.
The machines, sourced from mining manufacturer MicroBT, will increase the company’s self-mining capacity by 7.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) and were purchased ahead of Bitcoin’s next halving cycle, which will occur in mid-2024.
Riot Purchases 7.6 EH/s of Next Generation Miners from MicroBT, Manufactured in the United States. Read more in today’s press release: https://t.co/esLToy798H
— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) June 26, 2023
Riot Platforms CEO Jason Les said on June 26 that the deal will increase the firm’s self-mining capacity to 20.1 EH/s once the machines are installed in the first quarter of 2024:
“These new miners will contribute an additional 7.6 EH/s to Riot’s self-mining capacity when fully deployed and will further enhance our already strong fleet efficiency in advance of the upcoming Bitcoin halving.”
Les added that the machines were built specifically for “immersion cooling systems” like those used at the firm’s Corsicana facility.
Of the 33,280 machines, 8,320 are M56S+ models with a hash rate of 220 terahashes per second (TH/s), while the remaining 24,960 M56S++ are slightly more powerful at 230 TH/s.
However, the machines won’t arrive until December and full deployment won’t be complete until mid-2024.
Riot said it may also buy 66,560 M56S++ models before December 31, 2024, adding 15.3 EH/s to the company’s self-mining capacity. The firm may choose to exercise this option in full or in part.
Join our team as they take you through Riot’s production and operations updates for the month of May. Riot produced 676 #Bitcoin and had a deployed hash rate of 10.5 exahash per second. Hear from Riot’s VP of Research, @BitcoinPierre, as he touches on Riot’s active community… pic.twitter.com/lD3YJVkMct
— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) June 16, 2023
Despite the news, Riot’s share price fell 7.2% to $10.77 on June 26, according to Google Finance.
Related: Buying Bitcoin is preferable to BTC mining in most circumstances — Analysis
Meanwhile, on June 21, Bitcoin miner Akron Energy announced that it had bought a 200-megawatt (MW) mining facility in Hannibal, Ohio for an undisclosed sum.
This is the Sydney-based company’s first expansion into the US following a $26 million raise on June 20.
The company plans to immediately complete the first phase of design at the Hannibal facility, which it hopes will provide 100 MW of power.
The hosting services will be provided to the company’s institutional-scale clients in the Bitcoin industry.
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