On June 1, 2023, Cleanspark, a publicly-traded bitcoin mining company, declared the acquisition of 12,500 Antminer S19 XP bitcoin miners for $40.5 million. The purchase is expected to raise Cleanspark’s hashrate by an extra 1.76 exahash per second (EH/s).
Acquisition to Boost Cleanspark’s Hashpower by 1.76 EH/s
Throughout 2023, Cleanspark (Nasdaq: CLSK) has secured a considerable number of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin miners. In February, the company procured 20,000 new Bitmain mining rigs for $43.6 million, and in mid-April, it bought 45,000 Antminer S19 XP units. The firm’s most recent acquisition involved 12,500 Antminer S19 XP bitcoin miners at a cost of $40.5 million.
Cleanspark reveals that the expense stood at approximately $23 per terahash ($/TH), which is less than the current market value. The firm disclosed that 6,000 machines would arrive in June, while the remaining units would be delivered in August. These ASIC bitcoin mining machines will be stationed across Cleanspark’s data centers. The company claims that “low-carbon energy sources” account for 90% of the bitcoin miner’s power supply.
Zach Bradford, Cleanspark CEO, said in a statement that “this purchase ensures that we are prepared to meet and potentially exceed our year-end target of 16 EH/s and also positions us to be one of the most power-efficient miners on an energy-per- hashrate basis.” He also mentioned that “this additional machine purchase also gives us substantial optionality to replace the units in our existing fleet that consume more than 30 joules per terahash while allowing us to maintain less efficient machines only if the economics support doing so.”
Cleanspark’s announcement comes on the heels of a challenging crypto bear market endured by bitcoin miners during the latter part of 2022. Additionally, numerous other mining firms have also experienced expansion in recent times. For instance, Stronghold Digital partnered with Cantaloupe Digital LLC, a subsidiary of ASIC bitcoin miner producer Canaan. This deal elevated Stronghold’s hashrate by 400 petahash per second (PH/s), and on May 30, Stronghold unveiled that it had reached 3 EH/s concerning the company’s total hashpower.
Amid the crypto bear market, Cleanspark has discovered various opportunities. Gary A. Vecchiarelli, Cleanspark’s CFO, stated, “we continue to make use of opportunities created by the current market conditions to prepare for next year’s bitcoin halving.” He continued, “this order of XPs not only adds to our hashrate, but the efficiency of these machines also results in less power consumed per bitcoin mined compared to older generation miners, which should translate to higher margins.”
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