Some bitcoin mining companies continue to build and increase production, even though bitcoin (BTC) mining profitability dropped 44% last year, according to a recent announcement.
On June 1, American Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark announced announced the purchase of 12,500 new Antminer S19 XP units for $40.5 million. The deal closed at $23 per terahash per second (TH/s), which is below the average market price.
The news comes as the Bitcoin mining difficulty hit an all-time high of over 50 trillion on June 1, putting further pressure on miners. The network hash rate also approached its peak level on May 30th at 395 EH/s.
CleanSpark’s purchase agreement stipulates that 6,000 machines will ship from the manufacturer in June, with the rest in August.
The Antminer S19 XP units have a hash rate of 141 TH/s, and when purchased in combination, will bring the total hash rate to 1.76 exahash per second on top of the current 6.7 EH/s. CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said:
“This purchase ensures that we will meet and potentially exceed our year-end target of 16 EH/s.”
CleanSpark’s mining farm is located in Georgia. According to its website, the company operates 67,700 mining machines and has mined 2,395 BTC so far this year.
The company continues to expand despite declining Bitcoin mining profitability, with profitability dropping to $0.071 per TH/s per day, down 44% over the past 12 months and expected to grow by 2021. It has fallen 82% since the late crypto market peak. according to to the hashrate index.
CleanSpark in February Purchased 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units and in April Added 45,000 S19 XP ASIC rigs to the fleet.
Related: Mining Difficulty Hits 50 Trillion — 5 Things You Need To Know About Bitcoin This Week
In other recent company updates, Bitfarms announced In May, it announced that it had mined 459 BTC, with production up 6.5% year-on-year. “Our hashrate increased 47% year-on-year, which was offset by a 65% increase in network difficulties over the same period,” said Chief Mining Officer Ben Gagnon.
crypto mining announced 493 BTC were mined in May, a record production volume. The price increase was due to soaring transaction fees during the BRC-20 memetic coin minting boom, which peaked in early May.
On May 31, Compass Mining will handle Partners with hosting provider Arthur Mining to open new facility in Ohio.
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