The National Weather Service has reported blizzard conditions from the Midwest to the Northeast, with a cold snap that will result in below-freezing temperatures in about 80% of the United States. Bitcoin miners will be affected. Riot Blockchain said that it was closing down its Rockdale facility in Texas because of extreme weather conditions. Core Scientific said it would be “participating in multiple power curtailments to help stabilize the electrical grid.” It is expected that the bitcoin network-wide hashrate will drop temporarily.（The Block）
2.
As the storm spreads in the US and many miners are down, the latest day of bitcoin hashrate across the network has dropped nearly 35% to show just 156 EH/s. The average bitcoin hashrate over the last 14 days is 237 EH/s.
3.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 3.27% on Dec 19th, with a bitcoin-wide hashrate of 246 EH/s. Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped by 7.32% on Dec 6th.
4.
Greenidge Generation entered into a non-binding term sheet with NYDIG regarding approximately $74 million of debt. NYDIG would purchase miners with approximately 2.8 EH/s of mining capacity. Greenidge will be pledging substantially all of its unencumbered assets to NYDIG. NYDIG will reduce its debt by $57 million to $68 million.
5.
Bitmain announced that its latest HNS HS3 miner sold out in 27 seconds at $2,092 per unit with metrics of 9T 2079W and 231J/T. The HNS price has dropped 90.5% in the last 1 year and currently stands at $0.026.
6.
Core Scientific, one of the largest publicly traded crypto mining companies in the U.S., is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas early Wednesday morning. The company will not be liquidated, will not repay the debt due in late October and early November, and will continue to operate normally while reaching an agreement with the holders of the senior securities notes that hold the majority of the company’s debt.
Core Scientific may sell up to 1 gigawatt worth of its sites under development after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Core Scientific currently accounts for about 10% of the overall bitcoin network hashrate, which is about 25 EH/s, and mines about 50 BTC per day for itself.
7.
Core Scientific received court approval on Thursday to fund its Chapter 11 case with a $37.5 million loan from a group of existing creditors. The company will seek final approval of the loan and permission to borrow an additional $37.5 million in January,
8.
The Canadian province of British Columbia has announced that 21 cryptocurrency mining projects requesting a total of 1,403 megawatts will be temporarily put on hold and new cryptocurrency mining electricity demand will be suspended for 18 months. “Cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of electricity while creating very few jobs in the local economy.”
9.
The province of Buenos Aires in Argentina approved a project to add cryptocurrency mining as a taxable activity that will levy 4% on the income calculated via these operations for the next year. The taxes would be paid to the government of the province, and would not be related to any other taxes established by the Argentine national government.
10.
Bitcoin mining equipment and hosting provider Blockware Solutions was accused by a customer in a lawsuit of breach of contract, negligence, deceptive trade practices and fraud. The case, filed in U.S. federal court in the Northern District of Illinois on Dec. 17, centers around an allegation that Blockware sold Faes & Co. 50 mining rigs for $525,000. But Faes said in the lawsuit, “Blockware did not actually own or operate a facility to host the miners and was not capable of doing so reliably.”（CoinDesk）
11.
A bill on cryptocurrency mining regulation is being delayed over concerns that it could serve as a conduit for capital flight, Chairman of the Financial Market Committee of the State Duma (lower house) Anatoly Aksakov said. 1A proposal to legalize cryptocurrency mining and trading was submitted to Parliament in early November.
12.
Public Bitcoin mining firms have struggled under the weight of a year-long bear market and are set to end 2022 with a collective debt profile of more than $4 billion. Bitcoin miner Core Scientific is the hardest hit that owes $1.3 billion to creditors and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Marathon Digital is another Bitcoin miner with a significant debt burden. The company owes about $851 million, but the bulk is in convertible notes, which means its creditors can exchange it for shares in the firm. Marathon is not in danger of going bankrupt.（The Block）
13.
In its shareholder letter, German-listed miner Northern Data presented its operating results for 2022, with the company’s revenues coming almost entirely from BTC mining, with full-year revenues in the range of €190–194 million and adjusted EBITDA of €40–75 million; Northern Data carries no financial debt and has the opportunity in 2023 to consolidate and expand its market position in BTC mining.（eqs-news）
14.
Mercurity Fintech Holding announced that it entered into an asset purchase agreement with Huangtong International, providing for the Company’s acquisition and purchase of Web3 decentralized storage infrastructure, including cryptocurrency mining servers, cables, and other electronic devices, for an aggregate consideration of $5,980,000, payable in the Company’s ordinary shares. The investment is made with an aim to own mining machines capable of gathering, processing, and storing vast amounts of data, and to further solidify the Company as a pioneer in the creation of the Web3 framework.（GlobeNewsWire）
15.
Bitcoin miners operating in northern Norway and Sweden, where they sought refuge from sky-high electricity prices earlier this year, are powering down for the winter as energy tariffs surge.
December electricity prices in northern Norway have averaged 18 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) this year, about four times the average of the previous three years, data from the European power exchange Nordpool shows. In Sweden prices are more than three times as high.
Denis Rusinovich, co-founder of CMG Cryptocurrency Mining Group and Maverick Group, expects that northern Norway power prices to come back down in the first quarter of 2023. Power prices across southern Europe, however, will stay high for 2023, he said.（CoinDesk）
16.
Huobi will be ceasing trading of BHD, CNNS, CHAT, FAIR, GTC, HOT, HPT, LET, MTN, MONFTER, RIFI, TOPC, UGAS, XMX and YCC. These tokens will be delisted at 08:00 (UTC) on December 23rd, 2022. It is worth noting that HPT is the previous platform coin of Huobi Pool.
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