After a tough year for the cryptocurrency industry in 2022, public mining companies are beginning to see a rebound in their operations. On February 16, CleanSpark, a publicly listed Bitcoin miner, announced that it had purchased 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units for $43.6 million, boosting its computing power by 37%. The purchase brings the total number of miners purchased during the bear market to 46,500 units.
CleanSpark was able to purchase the machines at a 25% discount, paying $32.3 million after applying the coupons. The Pro+ rigs are 22% more productive than their previous models, and are planned to be delivered in batches between March and May. The current price per terahash (TH) of ASICs of the same Bitcoin mining efficiency is currently at $15.09, well below the $90.72 seen 12 months ago.
CleanSpark noted that the Antminer S19j Pro+ model offers a better return on investment compared to the same ASIC-generation machines. After they are fully operational, they are expected to add 2.44 EH/s to CleanSpark’s existing 6.6 EH/s of Bitcoin mining computing power (for a total of 9 EH/s).
The company is leveraging the market’s lower rig prices to boost its mining capacity, while Bitcoin’s (BTC) price rebounds. CleanSpark also disclosed that 15,000 of the new machines will be delivered to its locations in the city of Washington, Georgia. In August of last year, the company acquired Mawson Infrastructure Group’s facility in Sandersville, and the new acquisition is expected to increase the hash rate by 2.2 exahashes per second (EH/s), with the total hash rate reaching as high as 8.7 EH/s.
The purchase of the new Antminer rigs comes as other public mining companies, such as Core Scientific, Riot, Marathon and Cipher, have seen significant increases in Bitcoin production in the past month. This is due to stable electricity prices and better weather conditions in the United States. CleanSpark itself boosted its Bitcoin mining production by 50% during the month, reaching a record monthly production of 697 BTC, and its hash rate rose to 6.6 EH/s from 6.2 EH/s in December.
The current market conditions have made the acquisition of the Antminer S19j Pro+ rigs more attractive to CleanSpark’s operations. The S19j Pro+ delivers 122 terahash per machine and saves an average of 2 joules of energy per terahash compared to the S19j Pro model of the same generation.
CleanSpark’s purchase of 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units is a testament to the company’s commitment to expanding its mining capacity in the United States. The acquisition is expected to boost the company’s computing power by 37%, and will help to further increase the hash rate and Bitcoin production in the coming months. With the current market conditions, CleanSpark is in a great position to benefit from the rebound in Bitcoin prices and the lower rig prices, and the new Antminer rigs will certainly help the company to take advantage of these opportunities.
