Iris Energy, a prominent player in the Bitcoin mining sector, has recently announced its ambitious plans to expand its mining capacity as Bitcoin hashrate hits a new all-time high.
Iris Energy Announcement
On October 6, Iris Energy announced its intention to bolster its self-mining capacity by 25%, from 5.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) to an impressive 7 EH/s. According to the press release, the company has struck a strategic partnership with Bitmain, a leading Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer, to achieve this.
The announcement outlines Iris Energy’s plan to acquire 7,000 units of Bitmain’s S21 mining machines, with a total investment of $19.6 million.
Related reading: Bitmain Unveils The New Antminer S21 Series
Notably, an initial deposit of $16.7 million will be made prior to shipping, while the remaining $2.9 million (15% of the purchase cost) will be cleared until a year after shipment. The company states:
“The purchase is expected to be funded from existing capital sources, including cash in bank (~$64 million, no debt), operating cash flow, and other recently disclosed funding programs.”
Bitcoin Hashrate Hits ATH
The timing of Iris Energy’s capacity expansion coincides with Bitcoin’s mining hashrate reaching yet another all-time high.
“Hashrate” is a critical indicator representing the number of computational guesses, or hashes, miners can generate to find an acceptable nonce, required to validate and create new bitcoin blocks.
Related reading: What is Bitcoin Mining?
Related reading: Bitcoin Sees New All-Time High in Daily Transactions and Hashrate
With a higher hashrate, a mining company can produce hashes faster and increase its revenue. This implies it would have a competitive edge in earning freshly minted BTC rewards. Iris Energy’s co-founder and co-CEO, Daniel Roberts, commented on the new milestone by stating:
“Our expectations are that the halving might place near-term pressure on miners with less efficient fleets, high operating costs, or debt burdens, and you will note that we have positioned ourselves to ensure we are one of the most efficient and competitive businesses in the industry.”
Roberts noted the potential for massive growth in the industry during the April 2024 Bitcoin Halving by adding:
“We all know what has happened to the price of bitcoin after previously halving events, so we are equally positioning ourselves for that potential upside.”
As big mining companies are expanding in the space, there have been concerns that they might be taking too much control of bitcoin’s hashrate. But the latest data shows that these big players only control around 28% of all global hashrate, which is not too worrisome for now.
