Despite hideously hot summer, bitcoin miners manage 13 EH jump in hash rate

Big bitcoin mining companies have been behind a massive increase in average network hash rate in the third quarter.

Seven companies are particularly driving the increase, including Bitdeer, CleanSpark, Marathon Digital, Cipher, Bit Digital, Bitfarms and HIVE. Collectively, these firms grew Bitcoin’s monthly average hash rate by 13.88 exahashes per second (EH/s) from June to September, according to TheMinerMag.

TheMinerMag put the total quarterly increase in monthly average hash rate at 38.19 EH/s. To put that in perspective, Bitcoin’s total hash rate is just over 404 EH/s as of Monday.

Bitdeer was a standout among the rest, exploding its realized hash rate by over 120% in the third quarter. CleanSpark and Marathon also made significant gains on this front, each increasing computational power last quarter by around 43% and 38%, respectively.

All of this happened despite a record-breaking summer heat wave throughout North America that forced many miners to shut off their rigs so more power on the grid could be directed to households weathering 100+ degree temperatures.

Texas miner Riot Platforms racked up $31.7 million in power and demand response credits from the state’s electricity operator in August.

Conversely, this strategy from Riot — shutting down a large portion of their operations in Texas — also likely contributed to its 14% decrease in realized hash rate last quarter, according to data from TheMinerMag. 

Here’s a peek at some of the top performers in the mining space and what they’re doing to advance more efficient operations. 

Bitdeer

As mentioned, Singapore-based Bitdeer was the number one miner in terms of expanding its computing power. 

A major factor in its success was its August completion of its 100 megawatt (MW) data center in Gedu, Bhutan, according to Bitdeer CEO Linghui Kong. 

Subsequently, Bitdeer was able to maintain “stable operations” at that site for the full month of September, Kong said in October.

“The number of Bitcoin mined through our self-mining business increased by 25.8% from the previous month, and almost tripled from the same period of the previous year, to 482 bitcoins,” Kong said in an Oct. 5 statement. “During September, 217 bitcoins were mined at the Gedu mining datacenter, which was approximately 45% of our total bitcoin being mined for the month.”

Though Bitdeer booked a net loss of $40.4 million in the second quarter of 2023, the company is still pursuing an aggressive growth strategy. 

For example, the firm is in the midst of constructing a 175 MW immersion cooling data center in Norway. Bitdeer offered no indication as to when that will be completed.

Marathon Digital

Marathon has seen overwhelming growth throughout 2023. By August, it had installed enough hardware throughout its collection of data centers that its lofty 23 EH/s goal is now within striking distance.

Its US operational hash rate reached 15.8 EH/s in September, a 20% month-over-month increase, according to CEO Fred Thiel.

Beyond growth in mining power, Thiel also cited decreased curtailment as a reason why production has improved to 1,242 bitcoin last month — a 16% jump from August.

“The increase in bitcoin production from August was due to improved uptime and decreased curtailment activity in Texas,” Thiel said in an Oct. 4 statement.

Energization of Marathon’s facility in Garden City, Texas is still not complete, and the company is focused on increasing the mining efficiency of its location in McCamey, Texas.

In the medium term, Marathon also recently announced that it retired “the majority” of its convertible debt at a “significant discount,” which could put it in a stronger position for the bitcoin halving event in April 2024.

---

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.