Global Crypto Mining News (Mar 20 to Mar 26)

The price of the most efficient bitcoin mining rig has risen by 9% in the past two months. The rise in bitcoin prices comes as miners are finally seeing electricity prices plummet — essentially reversing a trend that squeezed their margins and caused some to go bankrupt last year. It’s becoming easier for companies to raise equity capital, allowing them to deleverage.（The Block）

Bitcoin miner Bitfarms mined 5,167 BTC at an average mining cost of $10,000 on revenues of $142 million, gross profit of $11 million, an operating loss of $284 million and a net loss of $239 million in 2022, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pete Sessions introduced the resolution, noting that “PoW mining is an essential process that allows blockchain networks to remain trusted, open, and decentralized in the legislation “Cryptocurrency mining “improves the overall economic viability of renewable energy projects” through the ability to tap into excess supply, allowing miners to reduce operations when electricity supplies are low or prices are high, and provide more energy to households and the grid when demand is high.

It is worth noting that this document was introduced by the Republican Party, which currently holds the presidency of the US House of Representatives. The document differs markedly from previous proposals by the Democrat-controlled White House to give cryptocurrency mining a significant tax hike.

According to BTC.com, Bitcoin has seen a mining difficulty adjustment at block height 782208, with mining difficulty increasing by 7.56% to 46.84T, a new all-time high. The average hashrate across the network is currently 340.23 EH/s.

In a new filing this week, BitDeer disclosed more recent financial information about its operations. The 522 MW of mining capacity in use across the U.S. and Norway as of Jun’22, which powered 4.2 EH/s and 6.3EH/s in proprietary mining and hosting hashrate, respectively. By the end of 2022, it had increased the developed capacity of the Texas site to 562 MW. Cloud mining sales revenue of $75 million; $60 million in the first half of 2022 for the hosting division.

Bit Digital, Inc. today announced a strategic realignment of its executive leadership team. Effective March 31, 2023, Bryan Bullett, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, will conclude his term as CEO. Mr. Bullett will assume the role Senior Advisor, in which he will lead strategic growth initiatives for the Company. Sam Tabar, the Company’s Chief Strategy Officer, will be appointed CEO.

Bit Digital additionally announced its Advisory Board and outlined its strategic priorities for 2023, including maintaining a strong balance sheet, strategically deploying capital, expanding into PoS, enhancing its money management solutions, and continuing to focus on sustainability.（PR Newswire）

Navier, a bitcoin mining hosting and services company, has launched Reactor.xyz, a marketplace for buying and selling tokenised hashrates.

The aim is to make bitcoin mining easy and reliable for retail users. Reactor.xyz offers ownership of assets, i.e. ownership of a certain amount of hashrate that will be mined over a certain period of time so that it can be easily traded between users. Furthermore, the hashrate for sale comes from large-scale Bitcoin miners, not from Navier’s own website.

A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of bankrupt lender BlockFi’s mining machines and other physical assets for $4.7 million. The assets were sold to a party called U.S. Farms, an attorney with BlockFi told the court on Thursday.

The deal was reached after a “very competitive” auction process that yielded five bids for the complete mining asset package and seven additional partial bids, the attorney told the court.（The Block）

The first nuclear-powered blockchain data centre in the US — namely TeraWulf’s Nautilus data centre in Pennsylvania, USA — has announced that its first phase, totalling 50 megawatts of capacity, will exclusively deploy Bitmain’s ANTMINER products, with the models already being deployed being ANTMINER S19 XP and S19 Pro.

TeraWulf is a US-based mining company with ESG (corporate sustainability) as a principle and practice, aiming for 100% zero carbon energy power. TeraWulf currently generates 91% of its power from nuclear, hydro and solar energy and has a nuclear-powered Nautilus data centre.

10.

Following the arrest of Joselit Ramirez — Venezuela’s Superintendent of Cryptoassets — and President Nicolas Maduro’s order to restructure the country’s crypto regulatory agency, the new Superintendent of Cryptoassets is apparently unhappy with the way the industry has developed and ordered the closure of all cryptocurrency exchanges registered in Venezuela with Venezuela’s National Superintendency of Cryptoassets “Sunacrip” — the country’s crypto regulator.

Although the drastic move has not been officially confirmed, Venezuela’s National Association of Cryptocurrencies told to Decrypt that such actions are taking place, as the country advances an anti-corruption investigation. So far, Joselit Ramirez and his political protector, Energy and Oil Minister Tareck el Aissami, have been removed from office. In addition, just prior to the crackdown, Sunacrip ordered the closure of large cryptocurrency mines operating in several Venezuelan states.（Decrypt）