Ben Strack

Riot Platforms is partnering with China-based bitcoin miner manufacturer MicroBT in an effort to secure an on-shore supply chain and potentially triple its hash rate.



Riot CEO Jason Les told Blockworks the deal is also a step toward more broadly bolstering the bitcoin mining industry domestically.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Founded in 2016, MicroBT develops and sells integrated circuits and bitcoin mining hardware under the WhatsMiner brand. It revealed a partnership with New York-based Foundry Digital in 2020 to increase its market share in North America.



The purchased MicroBT machines — to be created at a new facility in Pittsburgh — will be for Riot’s Corsicana facility in Texas’s Navarro County. Riot broke ground on the 1-gigawatt expansion project last October — slated to be bigger than its now-largest 700-megawatt Rockdale facility.&nbsp;



The initial order for the “long-term purchase agreement” amounts to 33,280 machines at a price of roughly $163 million, or $21.50 per terahash (TH). Riot has the option to buy an additional 66,560 machines before the end of 2024 at the same price.&nbsp;



MicroBT Chief Operating Officer Jordan Chen called the M56S+ and M56S++ — the models Riot ordered — “the most powerful machines we have ever developed” in a statement.



Riot has tested the machines over the past several months. Those models are designed for immersion cooling systems such as the ones to be used in the company’s Corsicana facility.



“This order will drive expansion of our operations allowing us to hire and train new staff to fulfill our growing United States-based manufacturing business,” Chen added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Growing hash rate, improving logistics </h2>



Riot historically only bought large amounts of machines from MicroBT rival Bitmain, a firm also based in China.&nbsp;



The company previously had to charter jets and endure expensive shipping costs to get machines delivered overseas, Les said. The arrangement with MicroBT “de-risks the logistics,” he added, as now trucks can ship the miners from Pennsylvania to Texas.&nbsp;



“By entering this order and forming this partnership with MicroBT, we’ve now helped develop this pipeline of access to US-manufactured miners,” the CEO told Blockworks. “We think that’s great for the industry and we think that’s great for decentralization.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Riot Platforms mined 676 BTC ($20.5 million) in May. It ended the month with roughly 800 miners staged for deployment — at which point the company said it was set to have 94,976 miners with a hash rate capacity of about 10.6 exahashes per second (EH/s).&nbsp;



The company was set to grow to 12.5 EH/s in the second half of 2023, it said earlier this month. But the deal with MicroBT could help Riot nearly triple that hash rate within the next two years or so.



Delivery of the 33,280 machines is expected to start in December, as deployment would follow in the first quarter of next year. Those machines would raise Riot’s hash rate to 20.1 EH/s. 



Marathon, another major US miner, <a href="https://ir.mara.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1315/marathon-digital-holdings-announces-bitcoin-production-and" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> 15.2 EH/s operational hash rate earlier this month, with 404.89 EH/s on the entire <a href="https://www.coinwarz.com/mining/bitcoin/hashrate-chart" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">network</a> right now.



If Riot chooses to buy the additional 66,560 MicroBT machines, its capacity is estimated to reach 35.4 EH/s. 



“We really like the product … and we really like the price of the hash rate right now,” Riot’s Les said. “While we do not have all the capital on our balance sheet to purchase [the additional] miners right now, we wanted to make sure we secured the option to.”



He added: “As we continue raising capital in the future, we’ll have the ability to put that to use at these low prices now.” &nbsp;



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Riot inks MicroBT deal to build bitcoin miners in US — not China

Sabre56 remains at the beginning stages of a planned seven-year strategy to shift its focus from consulting on bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BTC</a>) mining projects to offering hosting services to industry firms.



As a result of its deal with GEM Mining, disclosed Tuesday, Sabre56 is set to host 4,510 of the South Carolina-based private company’s bitcoin miners at its new Wyoming data centers. Half are expected to come online this month, with the other half in June.



The link-up with GEM Mining comes after Sabre56 raised $35 million in February to build data centers supporting blockchain infrastructure with a capacity of 150 megawatts (MW).&nbsp;&nbsp;



Sabre56 founder Phil Harvey told Blockworks the company is engaged with additional “tier-one echelon” mining companies amid the strategic move to bolster its hosting capabilities.&nbsp;



Harvey said the transition was spurred in part by becoming “sick and tired” of bad mining farm operators.&nbsp;



“People are putting tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars into this space, and the way they’ve been treated in the past has been disgusting,” he added. “There are very few players that can deliver to this size and scale, and we are one of them.”



The deal comes after Stronghold Digital Mining signed a two-year hosting agreement with Cantaloupe Digital last month, which also involved roughly 4,000 miners. Stronghold is set to receive half of the bitcoin generated from the miners, as well as payments from Cantaloupe Digital amounting to 55% of the net cost of power at its Panther Creek plant.



Though exact terms of the hosting agreement between Sabre56 and GEM Mining were not released, Harvey noted there would be a “dynamic hosting rate” to accommodate clients’ fluctuating profit margins as crypto markets rise and fall.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A years-long process</h2>



Harvey said the hosting services build-out is designed to be a seven-year process, noting that 2023 is about growing the hosting portfolio. Sabre56 projects to expand after that by between 100 MW and 200 MW of capacity per year.



Sabre56 has more miners in the pipeline that are set to take hosting services in its current and under-construction facilities in Wyoming and Ohio.&nbsp;



Going forward, the company would be open to working with &#8220;institutional-backed and institutional-grade&#8221; industry players such as Foundry, NYDIG, Marathon Digital and Argo Blockchain, among others, Harvey said.



&#8220;We’re constantly on the phone with these guys discussing various different options and possibilities to support them either in their own growth for their own sites, or for those guys to work on hosting with us,&#8221; the CEO added.&nbsp;



Though Sabre56 looks to continue offering consultant services this year to aid in cash flow, and ultimately grow faster, the company seeks to essentially wind down that business line by next year.



In addition to having expansion options at the Wyoming and Ohio sites Sabre56 is already contracted and building at, the firm is looking at Pennsylvania and Nebraska as potential areas to create hosting sites.&nbsp;



It also eyes opportunities in the Middle East and would be open to re-entering Canada — a country Sabre56 left when its Manitoba province paused new crypto mining operations for 18 months late last year.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sabre56 sees Bitcoin as an evolving space</h2>



In addition to building more hosting facilities, making sure they are ready for high-performance computing (HPC) is another focus. After all, companies outside of the bitcoin mining industry also use application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to support their own networks.&nbsp;



Facebook has developed its own ASIC, called <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/meta-scalable-video-processor-MSVP" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MSVP</a>, which is designed to power video workloads at Meta. The company plans to use MSVP to ultimately help bring artificial intelligence-generated content inside and outside the metaverse to Meta apps.



&#8220;We already have an ASIC-ready facility that we can plug machines into, and we are agnostic in regards to what algorithm or blockchain those machines run on as long as it’s profitable for us and our clients,&#8221; Sabre56’s Harvey said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Sabre56 remains wary of third-party risk as the bitcoin mining market condenses, the CEO added.



Core Scientific <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/compute-norths-business-goes-south" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed for bankruptcy</a> in December after data center operator Compute North <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/compute-norths-business-goes-south" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">started its own such proceedings</a> in September. Industry watchers said at the end of 2022 that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/more-crypto-miner-bankruptcy-2023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more could face a similar fate</a> this year.&nbsp;



Iris Energy co-founder Daniel Roberts said last December the company was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-miners-mulling-options-as-downturn-weighs-heavily" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">considering a shift to third-party hosting</a> as &#8220;a backstop&#8221; to stay afloat. It has instead continued focusing on boosting its <a href="https://investors.irisenergy.co/news-releases" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">self-mining</a> operations so far this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;



&#8220;What it looks like in the future is no one’s guess,&#8221; Harvey said of the mining industry landscape. &#8220;We just know it’s going to get smaller and smaller and there’s going to be fewer around to support the miner infrastructure (the Sabre side) as well as on the equipment side (the miners themselves).&#8221;



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Bitcoin Player Shifts Focus From Miner Consulting to Hosting

Shalini Nagarajan

US tech giant Intel has cooled on bitcoin mining after discontinuing its practically new Blockscale 1000 chip series.



The move comes about a year after Intel <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/intel-unveils-latest-energy-efficient-asic-mining-chip" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced its standalone</a> crypto mining chip, pegged to be more powerful and energy efficient than top-of-the-line ASICs.



“As we prioritize our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC while we continue to support our Blockscale customers,” Intel told Blockworks via email on Wednesday.



IDM 2.0 refers to Intel’s strategy of utilizing third-party foundries to manufacture products including graphics and chipsets.



Intel’s decision to axe its mining chips was first reported by tech outlet <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-discontinues-bitcoin-mining-blockscale-chips-no-future-gens-announced" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tom’s Hardware</a>, which noted the company often cites a focus on IDM 2.0 when it plans to tighten resources or pull out of businesses.



Intel had previously announced its Blockscale ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) would ship in the third quarter of 2022, and named Argo Blockchain, Block (formerly Square), GRIID Infrastructure and Hive Blockchain as its first customers. 



Hive Blockchain later touted Intel’s chips as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hive-intel-efficiency-upgrade" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">playing an important role</a> in improving the efficiency of its ASIC fleet.



But the company now anticipates it will cease taking orders for Blockscale in another five months and stop shipping the chip by April 20 next year, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-ends-its-bitcoin-mining-chip-series-2023-04-18/?taid=643f247ad1c4560001084ed5&amp;utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a> reported, citing a document on Intel’s website.&nbsp;



A plunge in bitcoin prices and the crypto winter has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/more-crypto-miner-bankruptcy-2023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">weighed</a> on Intel clients’ businesses, particularly those who’d <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crashing-prices-expose-bitcoin-mining-industrys-addiction-to-leverage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">taken on high-interest debt</a> during the bull market, with a mind to rapidly expand.



When first announcing its energy-efficient computing technology in Feb. 2022, Intel’s former graphics chief Raja Koduri said a <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/opinion/thoughts-blockchain-custom-compute-group.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">custom compute group</a> would be created within the company’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics business unit.&nbsp;&nbsp;



However, Intel <a href="https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/intel-graphic-chips-division-split" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">split</a> the unit in December to focus on “critical growth engines” and Koduri returned to his previous position as Intel’s chief architect.



Not long after, Koduri left Intel to create an AI-focused software company, CEO Pat Gelsinger <a href="https://twitter.com/PGelsinger/status/1638234519647174657">said</a> on Twitter.



Intel signaled that it isn’t completely turning away from the bitcoin market. “We continue to monitor market opportunities,” the chipmaker said.



Other chipmakers have been impacted by the bear market in varying degrees, particularly <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nvidia-to-pay-sec-5-5m-for-allegedly-failing-to-disclose-crypto-revenue-boost" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nvidia</a> and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/27/22697339/amd-crypto-mining-ceo-lisa-su-gpu-code-conference" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AMD</a>, whose gaming graphics cards were popular among Ethereum miners before the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/whats-next-for-ethereum-in-a-post-merge-world" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">switch to proof of stake</a> late last year.



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Intel Axes Bitcoin Mining Chip

<div id="highlights-block_633ec61504c8d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Grayscale anticipates mining equipment to become available at “distressed levels” in coming months</li>
 <li>Firm is set to use hardware to mine and sell bitcoin daily</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A new private co-investment product from Grayscale Investments is designed to allow investors to gain exposure to mining hardware as it seeks to capitalize on buying opportunities in the distressed segment.&nbsp;



Capital raised by The Grayscale Digital Infrastructure Opportunities LLC (GDIO) will mainly be used to purchase mining hardware, according to Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s head of investor relations. GDIO will employ its hardware by seeking to mine and sell bitcoin daily and will look to distribute a portion of its operating income to investors quarterly, she added.



The investment vehicle is available to eligible individual and institutional accredited investors.



After three years of operation — but no later than five years — GDIO will seek an exit strategy, which may include a disposition of its assets.



The product is designed to capture upside, the company said, amid the so-called crypto winter — a period that <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-bear-market-may-drag-on-another-8-months-grayscale/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grayscale researchers said in a July report</a> could last another eight or so months.



Bitcoin mining has become less profitable in recent months, as bitcoin’s price has fallen about 70% from its all-time high reached last November. Some mining companies <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-mining-strategies-differs-as-downturn-lingers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have resorted to selling bitcoin</a> to help cover operational and other expenses. 



“In the coming months, we anticipate mining equipment will become available for purchase at distressed levels,” Sharif-Askary told Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“GDIO will have an opportunity to provide liquidity to the mining ecosystem, purchasing mining equipment at an optimal time in the mining cycle to profitably mine bitcoin in the future,” she said.</blockquote>



Grayscale, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), manages $17.6 billion in assets. Crypto mining and staking firm Foundry, a fellow DCG affiliate, is set to manage operations of GDIO.



Foundry provides financing for bitcoin mining equipment and access to equipment manufacturers.



“As part of Foundry’s mission to empower a decentralized infrastructure, we’re excited to partner with Grayscale to broaden the ability to invest in bitcoin mining during this opportune time,” Foundry CEO Michael Colyer said in a statement.



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Grayscale Unveils Mining Hardware Exposure Via Private Product

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_63111910b5316" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bitcoin’s price decline and the rising cost of power has made turning a profit difficult </li>
 <li>Some at-home miners opt to lose money on older setups, just for the learning experience</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



With the price of bitcoin faltering and mining difficulty on the rise, crypto enthusiasts who once took home a pretty penny mining out of home garages are now finding it harder to break even.



Mining bitcoin at home today is much more challenging than in the early days of crypto. Mining equipment is costly and electricity does not come cheap, either, and the number of people willing to risk investing in bitcoin mining operations has shrunk.



“In terms of demand, it declined in June very, very significantly,” Lauren Lin, operations manager at mining pool Luxor, said. “However, at the beginning of August, the demand has been picking up, partly because the bitcoin price went up a little from June’s decline and also more hosting sites have come online.”&nbsp;



Hosting sites are data centers where miners can store and operate their equipment for a fee. The infrastructure that comes with bitcoin mining, at least to be profitable, is substantial, Lin said.&nbsp;



“To mine at home, it not only requires the capital to purchase the ASIC [application-specific integrated circuit rig], you need to know how to ventilate, you need to know how to deal with the noise and the heat, there’s a lot to consider,” Lin said.&nbsp;



Profitability is first and foremost the top concern for most miners, Lin added, and recently, it’s been harder to turn a profit. More first-time miners have been purchasing S9 mining units, an older model that does not produce enough bitcoin to offset the electricity costs.&nbsp;



“I will say, at least for our customer base, the people doing this have the main purpose to test how mining works,” Lin said. “If you are mining at home, with residential power rates, an S9 is not profitable at all, but you would get some experience.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin mining at home no match for major companies</h3>



Corporations keen to cash in on the crypto demand have been on the rise as well, further pushing out garage-based operations.&nbsp;



“The big boys are playing hard and employing multiple strategies to make a profit from their sites,” Sam Doctor and David Bellman, mining researchers at analytics firm BitOoda, wrote in a recent note.&nbsp;



The ‘big boys,’ i.e., the major corporations that have entered the mining space in recent years, are diversifying their revenue streams to weather rocky market conditions. Nasdaq-listed Stronghold Digital Mining has been selling power to the grid — and its mining machines — to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crashing-prices-expose-bitcoin-mining-industrys-addiction-to-leverage/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cover debt</a>.&nbsp;



Other companies have shifted gears entirely. Bitcoin miners in Rochester, New York have brought a retired power plant back into operation to generate new cryptocurrency.



Private-equity firm Atlas Holdings purchased Greenidge Generation in 2014 and converted the coal-fired power plant to natural gas. In 2021, the company started using the generated power to mine bitcoin. There is now <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/new-york-passes-bill-restricting-carbon-fueled-crypto-mining-operations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">legislation in New York</a> aiming to prevent new operations from drawing on fossil fuels.&nbsp;



There has also been a shift in geography, Lin added, especially in the wake of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/china-mining-exodus-seen-as-positive-for-bitcoin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China’s ban</a> on mining operations. Mining activity has picked up across Europe and South America, Lin said.&nbsp;



“Starting from the end of last year, we&#8217;re seeing more and more South American miners scaling up,” Lin said. “Around the time of the China mining ban, they were still purchasing a very old generation of ASICs, now, they are moving into the latest generation of the ASICs.”



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The Days of Lucrative Bitcoin Mining at Home are Over

David Canellis

<div id="highlights-block_62bc90bc0ca9e" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Altcoin Season Index calculates whether markets are favoring bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies</li>
 <li>Digital asset investors have gravitated toward bitcoin all year as prices have tumbled</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Just 15 of the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market value have outperformed bitcoin (BTC) over the past 90 days — indicating we’re still far from the much-loved “altcoin season.”



Blockchain Center’s Altcoin Season Index gauges the temperature of digital asset markets by separating sentiment into two heady modes: bitcoin and altcoin.



An “altcoin” is considered a derogatory label for much of the cryptocurrency sector, subtly denigrating anything that isn’t the original digital asset.&nbsp;



Still, the index serves as an effective tool for mapping where investors’ heads are at when it comes to diversifying away from the blue chips.



How it works: Altcoin season has arrived when more than 75% of the top 50 cryptocurrencies (38 or more) have outperformed BTC over the past 90 days. The index filters out stablecoins and asset-backed tokens such as wrapped bitcoin and Lido staked ether.



On the flip side, we’re firmly in bitcoin season if fewer than 25% of the top 50 digital assets have outperformed BTC.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Fa4aUG7T27wxZxguudI_QjNq5IDt1lhF9AhEm-XXwD2INbHYi1F8y74xbwEX_qxIKJp7gNGXmfkJK7cypFnAvsWaRTyrb-5f6i_EKv_tU6lkwdtFmtb-W62Q4bonEEnnY52nElV50cGt0lZ3eS4" alt=""/><figcaption>Altcoin Season Index | Source: <a href="https://www.blockchaincenter.net/altcoin-season-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockchaincenter.net</a></figcaption></figure>



The most recent prolonged altcoin season occurred in 2021, between late March and the last week of June. At the time, BTC was hovering around $60,000 before collapsing 40%, to $34,000.



But crypto markets trended heavily toward bitcoin season throughout July 2021, and formally entered BTC mode for nearly two weeks in August of that year.



Blockchain Center’s index bounced between the two seasons for six months — except for two days in January, when crypto markets briefly propelled altcoin returns beyond bitcoin’s.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin miner capitulation could summon altcoin season</h3>



The index indicates we’re not currently in the season of the big orange coin. Still, crypto markets have enjoyed more than 70 days of bitcoin season since the start of February — about half the total number of days until today.



Right now, we’re far away from altcoin season, with just 31% of the top 50 cryptocurrencies outperforming BTC over the past 90 days. But that could change quickly should bitcoin miners continue to feel the pressure from low prices and macroeconomic factors driving up electricity costs.



“If miners continue to sell their BTC rewards in order to fund operations then it could definitely swing back to an altcoin season,” said Ryan Swanson, Blockworks Research analyst.



Bearing in mind this doesn’t mean altcoins go up — they can outperform bitcoin in a downtrend too — Swanson explained that altcoin season has historically followed bitcoin season, after a rise in the price of BTC results in more capital moving to riskier assets.



“However, the trend seems to be changing in the near term, given the specific pressures on miners and the emergence of ‘altcoins’ that have their own market cycles, such as layer-1 tokens ether and solana, as well as [decentralized finance] offerings like aave and MakerDAO [MKR],” Swanson said.



Check out Blockworks Research’s latest <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/research/bitcoin-state-of-min-ing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">State of Bitcoin Mining report</a> here.



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Bitcoin Miners May Trigger Altcoin Season – But We’re Not There Yet

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_62acecffed51d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bitcoin miners across the US took out loans to finance their rapid expansion over the past year, when crypto prices were at record highs</li>
 <li>BTC’s current low price means miners are operating on razor-thin margins, putting them at risk of default</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Swaths of bitcoin miners face possible liquidation after taking out high-interest loans to fund their bull market spending habits, rather than selling their bitcoin — which industry participants say is apt to trigger a cascade of crypto lenders and hedge fund firms with exposures going bust.&nbsp;



Bitcoin miners rely on three profitability dynamics: the price of bitcoin (BTC), electricity prices and access to high-performance specialty mining rigs known as ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits). Check out our explainer guide for more info on the <a href="http://get%20educated.xn--%20check%20out%20the%20investors%20guide%20to%20avax%2C%20the%20investors%20guide%20to%20music%20nfts%2C%20the%20investors%20guide%20to%20defi%202-yy48ggbzc.xn--0%20and%20the%20investors%20guide%20to%20avalanche-s105a./">profitability and economics of bitcoin mining</a>.



All three are now distressing miners — plus their creditors and other counterparties.&nbsp;



BTC is down some 30% over the past month — from $31,000 to under $21,000. Summer electricity prices are forecast to double year on year in the Northeastern US, home to a good number of miners.



Rather than sell their mined bitcoin, US operations commonly took out loans at fairly high interest rates, Blockworks has learned, when bitcoin’s price was double what it is today.&nbsp;



Estimates suggest nearly 40% of all bitcoin mining happens in the US. Crypto lenders such as BlockFi, NYDIG and China’s Babel Finance helped facilitate growing ASIC inventories. The operation was working — before stablecoin UST’s collapse and digital assets lender Celsius’ insolvency.&nbsp;



While energy costs are concerning, bitcoin’s price is the primary source of pain for miners — especially those with large amounts of leverage.



“Sentiment is really bad,” said Todd Esse, co-founder of mining hedge fund firm HashWorks. “At this price, margins are very thin, especially heading into summer with power prices set to rise in Texas and PJM [Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland].”



Before the latest broad-based market downturn, miners found creative loopholes to put down deposits — between 30% to 50% — to manufacturers to receive a fresh batch of machines, pledging to pay the balance with funds from yet-to-be-mined bitcoin.



Operators even borrowed cash to cover overheads using their ASICs as collateral — believing the price of bitcoin would continue to rise, allowing them to mine profitably. A number of lenders, including the recently underwater Babel Finance, underwrote such loans, leading to the risk of the creditor getting stuck with bulky, illiquid machinery that loses money every second without power. And that’s not to mention firms voluntarily shutting down their rigs — some can’t break even as the price of electricity climbs.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">Some will look to offload their entire ASIC supply on secondary markets, already awash with second-hand rigs from Chinese miners, according to mining consultant Alejandro De La Torre, who said it’s going to be “mayhem out there.”</blockquote>



In fact, HashWorks was recently offered top-of-the-line Bitmain S19j Pros for $4,400 — a staggering 65% below retail.&nbsp;



“The market is looking for a bid right now,” Esse said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Lenders could reposses bitcoin miners to make themselves whole</h3>



Irrespective of where an operator got their rigs up and running, if there’s an outstanding line of credit, “no matter when you got in,“ it&#8217;s impossible to be “generating enough revenue through mining to make those loan obligations,” according to Jurica Bulovic, head of mining at Foundry Digital, which lends to crypto miners and engages in crypto staking.&nbsp;



Defaults on loans — which already carry a relatively high interest rate of about 11% annually — are expected to weigh heavily on creditors with large balance sheets.



However, most miners aren’t likely to start defaulting soon, Bulovic told Blockworks. Some have built balance sheets and other income to at least pay the interest.&nbsp;



But if the current economics continue, miners who’ve bought and and sold BTC over time will start tapping cash reserves.&nbsp;



If they have cash reserves.&nbsp;



“Obviously, no one wants to sell bitcoin, especially at these low prices, but they will have to to avoid default on their loans,” Bulovic said.



When possible, Foundry structures its loan between three parties — themselves, miners and the hosting facilities for rigs.&nbsp;



If the miner defaults, Foundry would take over the operation and continue to mine until it makes itself whole. But not all lenders have that expertise.&nbsp;



The final recourse is to repossess rigs and try to sell.



“This is a challenge for all lenders, as the markets are not very liquid,” Bulovic said. “It’s much easier to sell bitcoin than to sell an ASIC. I think some lenders in the space who came from traditional lending, or lending against bitcoin, will now realize that collateral they&#8217;re holding is maybe not as liquid or as valuable as they thought.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin hashrate expected to drop further</h3>



Evidence of pain can already be found in bitcoin’s hashrate, which measures processing power on the network. Over the past week, the hashrate has fallen around 17%, and bitcoin itself has tanked more than 20%.&nbsp;



Both Esse and De La Torre expect hash rate to fall significantly, although the Bitcoin network can withstand a sizable drop in hash rate and remain secure.&nbsp;



Crypto’s collapse has exposed immense leverage risk in bitcoin mining.



“If miners weren’t levered up, they’d either be mining or not, and they wouldn’t have debt to service,”&#8217; Esse said. “This business is like any other commodity business: how much do you want to leverage up in oil? You should be operating within cash flow.”



The notion of “free money” is gone in mining, De La Torre said, for those who didn’t consider a potential price drop.



“And perhaps financing ASIC machines at $13,000 was a stupid move — and now they’re paying for that stupidity,” he said.



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Crashing Prices Expose Bitcoin Mining Industry’s Addiction to Leverage

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_61e748863d90e" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Intel is expected to reveal its low voltage, energy efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC next month</li>
 <li>While its possible Intel&#8217;s ASIC could see long run potential in further professionalizing Bitcoin’s mining market, entrenched players were likely to continue dominating, according to one mining expert</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Intel, one of the world&#8217;s largest semiconductor chip makers by revenue, is expected to unveil its bitcoin mining chip later next month in an attempt to capitalize on crypto&#8217;s booming mining sector.



The chip giant will unveil its &#8220;Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC,&#8221; according to <a href="http://submissions.mirasmart.com/ISSCC2022/PDF/ISSCC2022AdvanceProgram.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">program details</a> for the upcoming International Solid-State Circuits Conference to be held Feb. 19-26.



ASIC, or application-specific integrated circuits, refer to an integrated circuit chip designed for specific use cases. In the case of crypto mining, ASICs are designed in such a way as to more optimally solve a crypto mining puzzle through hashing power.



Intel is hoping its advance into crypto mining will help it claw back some of its lost market share after a <a href="https://www.techzine.eu/blogs/infrastructure/66919/intels-strategy-has-failed-wont-recover-until-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disastrous decision</a> in 2014 to opt-out of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) machines used in the production process of advanced chips.



The machines that Intel decided against at the time use a laser with EUV light in the manufacturing process and allow competing manufacturers, like Taiwan&#8217;s TSMC, to create chips that can be produced at a much smaller scale than traditional means while containing more transistors per chip. Intel hopes to have its own fleet of EUV machines in operation sometime this year.



Providing the picks and shovels to miners amid another crypto bonanza has proved profitable for large players like Bitmain and Whatsminer. Intel is banking that its latest venture will allow it to buoy some of the company&#8217;s poor decisions in the past.



Depending on the month, the total profits obtained from bitcoin mining revenue sit between $1 billion to $1.7 billion or yearly revenue of around $17 billion, data from <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/on-chain-metrics/bitcoin/bitcoin-miner-revenue-monthly" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Block</a> shows. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/news/crypto-mining-giant-bitmain-going-public-4050-billion-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sales revenue</a> of mining rigs from the likes of Bitmain were estimated to be in the billions.



&#8220;It’s not surprising to see hardware manufacturers seek out new lines of production to increase their bottom line,&#8221; said William Foxley, media director at Compass Mining. 



Foxley also said that while it was possible Intel&#8217;s ASIC could see long-run potential in further professionalizing Bitcoin’s mining market, Bitmain, and to a lesser extent Whatsminer, would continue to be the dominant ASIC manufacturer.



&#8220;There’s simply too far a gap for players like Intel to make up,&#8221; said Foxley.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Ultra-Low-Voltage and Energy-Efficient</h3>



While details on Intel&#8217;s new ASIC are scant, the name suggests the chip giant is attempting to target one major area of concern in the Bitcoin mining process and increased hashing power — energy efficiency.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">3/Silicon design is too concentrated into a few companies. This means supply is likely overly constrained. Silicon development is very expensive, requires long term investment, and is best coupled tightly with software and system design. Why aren’t more companies doing this work?&mdash; jack⚡️ (@jack) <a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1449110245670801408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Criticism often points to bitcoin&#8217;s energy use as an environmental hazard, though <a href="https://bitcoinminingcouncil.com/q4-bitcoin-mining-council-survey-confirms-sustainable-power-mix-and-technological-efficiency/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> released by The Bitcoin Mining Council on Tuesday points the discussion in a different direction.



According to the research, it is estimated the sustainable electricity mix for the global crypto mining industry grew to 58.5% in Q4 2021, up 1% from the previous quarter, which made it &#8220;one of the <a href="https://twitter.com/Bitfarms_io/status/1483570431936413703?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most sustainable</a> industries globally.&#8221;



Keeping the cost of production down is key in any market to maximizing profit, doubly so when it comes to the cost of mining cryptocurrencies. Competition is fierce, and choosing the right machines as well as locations around the world that are <a href="https://minebest.com/blog/how-big-is-the-cryptocurrency-mining-industry" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">well-suited and politically favorable</a> towards miners are the key differences between the success and failure of miners&#8217; operations.



Whether Intel can chip away at some of the entrenched players and provide a more profitable product for miners remains to be seen.



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