Mining News in September: Putin Declares Russia a Bitcoin Mining Leader, Tokyo Electric Power Gets Into Bitcoin Mining, Canaan Issues Preferred Shares , sponsored by Bitdeer
Title sponsored by Bitdeer, a NASDAQ-listed mining company.
1.
On September 26, 2024, Bitdeer announced the successful testing of its latest Bitcoin mining chip, SEAL02, following tape-out. SEAL02 uses one of the most advanced process nodes in partnership with TSMC. An exceptional power efficiency ratio of 13.5 J/TH — while running at low voltage, ultra power-saving mode — was indicated in SEAL02 chip’s verification. SEAL02 will be integrated into the Company’s upcoming SEALMINER A2 mining machines, with mass production scheduled to commence in November 2024. Development of SEAL03 is ongoing and the Company’s product release milestone is on track.
2.
In an interview with analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein, Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan said the Bitcoin miner can grow “exponentially” over the next few years via its AI data center services. However, that depends on whether or not the firm can demonstrate the ability to deliver gigawatt scale AI data centers beyond its initial client, CoreWeave. “Signing up another 500MW or 1GW of deals over the course of the next few years puts us in a position where we’re not a $2.5 billion company, we are potentially a $25 to $30 billion company,” Sullivan said.
3.
Agile Energy X Inc., based in Tokyo, is experimenting with using renewables to mine bitcoins. Agile Energy X’s simulations based on open data showed that 240,000 gigawatt-hours of power would be wasted if green energy were to be introduced to account for 50 percent of the total power supply. The simulations also showed that using 10 percent of that power would allow 360 billion yen ($2.5 billion) worth of bitcoins to be mined every year.
4.
During his speech at the Eastern Economic Forum, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia had become one of the world leaders in bitcoin mining. According to reports from the director of the Industrial Mining Association, Sergey Bezdelov, Russia produced 54,000 BTC during 2023, bringing over $550 million in taxes to the nation. Putin stated：“Russia is today one of the world leaders in mining, and this is due to the surplus of energy capacity in Siberia.”
5.
CleanSpark said it will acquire seven bitcoin mining facilities and associated land in the Knoxville, Tenn., area for total cash payments of $27.5 million. The operating hashrate of the facilities is anticipated to result in 5 EH/s, which will increase CleanSpark’s current hashrate by over 22%. The company anticipates closing at each site by Sept. 25. The seven sites total 85 MW and range in size from 10 MW to 20 MW. The company now expects to achieve 37 EH/s before the end of 2024, said CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford in the release. (The Block)
6.
Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital Holdings has announced that it has increased its BTC position to 26,200. In August, Marathon Digital Holdings announced that it had bought 4,144 BTC for $249 million.
7.
Dennis Porter, co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, tweeted that the cost of electricity in a Norwegian town has risen by $300 per household, an increase of more than 25 percent, following a ban on bitcoin mining. The drop in demand for electricity in the area after the ban resulted in higher electricity costs for the remaining customers, who now have to make up for the loss of revenue caused by the withdrawal of mining companies. Customers are paying not only for electricity, but also for the use of electricity infrastructure. This change raises concerns about the cost-sharing of electricity infrastructure.
8.
Mining company Bitfarms recently announced it entered into a hosting agreement with Stronghold Digital Mining to bring an additional 2.2 EH/s of computing power online during October 2024 — two months ahead of schedule. The agreement will add 10,000 Bitmain T21 miners to Bitfarms’ Panther Creek facility in Pennsylvania and commence on Oct. 1. Bitfarms will pay Stronghold a fee equivalent to 50% of the profits generated from the miner hosting agreement, which will renew annually until either party decides not to renew the contract.（Cointelegraph）
9.
Bitcoin miner Cathedra Bitcoin is halting its seven-year mining operation in favor of a new strategy: buying as many bitcoins as possible on the open market, like MicroStrategy.Cathedra Bitcoin explains that under the new plan, “all capital allocation decisions” will now maximize the company’s bitcoin reserves on a per-share basis, which is the “most important” metric that many large shareholders focus on.（CoinDesk）
10.
Bitcoin miner Cleanspark announced it has acquired two bitcoin mining sites and associated land near Clinton, Mississippi. The acquisitions have a combined purchase price of $5.775 million and will support a total of 16.5 megawatts, according to a press release. The site will be delivered to CleanSpark turnkey ready with an expected completion date of Dec. 1. The site will house S21 pro miners with an expected combined operating hash rate of approximately 1 EH/s. The addition of these sites will bring CleanSpark’s data center portfolio in Mississippi to 60.5 MW.（The Block）
Bitdeer’s new Bitcoin miner brand SEALMINER A1, is now open for reservation. For every $0.99 you pay, you can unlock priority purchase rights and $100 credit towards your miner purchase. Bitdeer Sponsored.
11.
According to Lookonchain monitoring，A miner wallet woke up after being dormant for 15.7 years and transferred 50 BTC($3.05M) out just now. The miner earned 50 BTC from mining on Jan 30, 2009. Another miner wallet transferred out 50 BTC($3.19M) obtained from mining after being dormant for 15.6 years. In addition, three other miner wallets that have been dormant for more than 15 years have transferred 50 BTC each in the past hour. all five wallets were awarded 50 BTC for mining in 2009, and 250 BTC were transferred in five separate transactions with a total value of nearly $13 million. It is unclear whether these wallets all belong to the same person or entity.
12.
Arkham are tagged over 1,250 Core Scientific Bitcoin addresses used for mining, storage and transfers and are the first to publicly identify these. Core Scientific has mined over $710M of Bitcoin since the start of 2023 and is the second-largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner in the world.
13.
BTC.com, a mining service provider for 9 years, today announced a brand upgrade that will unify its branding to CloverPool.Founded in 2015, BTC.com offers a variety of services such as multi-currency mining pools, block browsers, data services and mining tools. In addition to the name change, CloverPool also announced the upcoming launch of a hardware trading service.
14.
Green United LLC has lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which has accused its executives of operating a fraudulent crypto mining scheme that raked in $18 million from investors. Defendants Wright Thurston and Kristoffer Krohn — who operated cryptocurrency mining firm Green United LLC — were accused by the SEC of fraudulently offering securities in March after selling “Green Boxes” and “Green nodes” marketed as miners for the GREEN token on the “Green Blockchain.”In the Sept. 23 decision, Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen said the defendants failed to rebut the SEC’s securities allegations, stating that the “SEC has adequately alleged all necessary elements of a security in the form of an investment contract.”
15.
Macquarie has initiated “outperform” ratings on several bitcoin mining stocks, including MARA, Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining, citing a growing shift from crypto-specific operations to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) models. Macquarie sees that as the shift toward HPC accelerates, several miners will benefit significantly in the long term. The analysts also noted that while operationalizing AI cloud offerings in bitcoin miners’ facilities is still in its early stages, there is potential for these companies to play a major role in the AI compute market.（The Block）
16.
Revolve Labs, a bitcoin mining colocation provider, has withdrawn its application to build a new facility outside Windom, Minnesota, following opposition from residents at an August hearing. Previously, the company planned to build a mining facility in the area, which would provide $35,000 per month for local services and was expected to stabilize electricity prices over the next three years. However, the project was resisted by some 100 residents concerned about noise pollution and damage to property values.
17.
Crypto miner Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) recently completed an auction for used mining machines on its official website, auctioning off 2,880 Ant S19s from its Norwegian mine, with a total rated computing power of 269.86 P. Ten bidders went through 22 rounds of bidding, and the final price was locked at $302,000. According to Bitdeer, there will be a mining machine auction program in the future, and the number of miners to be auctioned and the specific time of the auction are yet to be announced by the official.
18.
The government of the Republic of Dagestan has made an announcement that local law enforcement and energy officials have joined forces to combat illegal cryptocurrency mining activities, discovering an underground cryptocurrency mining site in the capital Makhachkala. According to Dagestan’s Cabinet of Ministers via Telegram, law enforcement officials discovered 17 cryptocurrency mining rigs several meters underground in the Sergokalinsky district of Makhachkala city. Illegal miners have begun setting up underground mines and mobile mining units in various parts of Dagestan in order to avoid regulation, and these illegal mining activities led to a fire at the local 110kV Novaya substation, which left parts of the capital without power for several days. The government will spend about 3 billion rubles ($32.5 million) to repair the damaged energy facilities.
19.
f2pool launched Aleo mining pool alongside the mainnet, implementing a 1% PPLNS payout scheme. Aleo is a novel layer-1 blockchain platform that enables the creation of scalable and private applications using zero-knowledge cryptography. Aleo employs a hybrid consensus architecture called AleoBFT, which uses PoS to achieve instant finality for block confirmation and a PoW “coinbase puzzle” that rewards the development of faster techniques for proof generation. Currently, f2pool supports NVIDIA GPU devices for Aleo mining.
20.
Swan Bitcoin has filed suit against a group of former employees and consultants, alleging they “hatched and executed a ‘rain and hellfire’ plan” to “steal” its lucrative bitcoin mining business with the help of Tether, Swan Bitcoin’s one-time ally and fundraising partner. Swan argued that Tether, a former financing partner, promised to invest while secretly scheming to encourage employees to leave and build a competing business. The incident resulted in Swan abandoning its IPO plans and laying off approximately 45% of its workforce. Swan sought a permanent injunction against the defendants and sought compensatory and punitive damages.（CoinDesk）
21.
Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc over the weekend, as the Category 4 hurricane brought high winds and torrential rain across the southeastern United States. At least 128 people have died, and more than 2 million are without power. To prepare for Helene, bitcoin miner CleanSpark said it shut down 365 megawatts of its southeast Georgia sites. The firm its brought approximately 200 MW back online and expects the remaining 165 MW to be restored by Friday, Oct. 4.（The Block）
22.
A United States District Court judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit brought by investors in Bitcoin miner Iris Energy, who alleged the mining firm concealed key risks and misled investors during its initial public offering. The lawsuit alleged Iris Energy, its executives, and its underwriters — which include J.P. Morgan and Citigroup Global Markets — violated both the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act during its 2021 initial public offering.
23.
Canaan has completed the third tranche of its preferred stock offering, raising an additional $50 million to expand its proprietary mining operations in the U.S. Canaan announced the issuance of 50,000 Class A preferred stocks at $1,000 per share. These shares are convertible into Class A ordinary shares after six months, which can subsequently be converted to American Depository Shares (ADSs) on Nasdaq. This offering is the third tranche of a securities purchase agreement that Canaan signed with an unnamed institutional investor in November 2023, aiming to raise up to $125 million in three phases. Canaan raised $25 million in the first tranche and $50 million in the second tranche in December and February, respectively.
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