Riot Platforms to add 33,000 Bitcoin miners ahead of 2024 halving

Acquisition

The new rigs will add 7.6 EH/s to the firm’s self-mining capacity, but won’t be installed until the first quarter of 2024.

Riot Platforms — one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies — has bought 33,280 “next-generation” Bitcoin miners for its Texas facility, costing $162.9 million.

The rigs, which were sourced from mining manufacturer MicroBT, will boost the firm’s self-mining capacity by 7.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) and comes “in advance” of Bitcoin’s next halving cycle, which is set to take place in mid-2024.

Riot Purchases 7.6 EH/s of Next Generation Miners from MicroBT, Manufactured in the United States.

Read more in today’s press release: https://t.co/esLToy798H
— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) June 26, 2023

Riot Platforms CEO Jason Les stated on June 26 that the deal will increase the firm’s self-mining capacity to 20.1 EH/s once the machines are installed in the first quarter of 2024:

“These new miners will contribute an additional 7.6 EH/s to Riot’s self-mining capacity when fully deployed and will further enhance our already strong fleet efficiency in advance of the upcoming Bitcoin halving.”

Les added the rigs we built specifically for “immersion cooling systems,” such as those used at the firm’s Corsicana facility.

Of the 33,280 machines, 8,320 are M56S+ models with a hash rate of 220 terahashes per second (TH/s), while the remaining 24,960 M56S++ are slightly more powerful at 230 TH/s.

However, the machines won’t arrive until December and full deployment of the miners won’t be completed until mid-2024.

Riot said it may also purchase 66,560 M56S++ models before December 31, 2024, adding 15.3 EH/s to the firm’s self-mining capacity. The company may choose to exercise this option in whole or in part.

Join our team as they take you through Riot's production and operations updates for the month of May. Riot produced 676 #Bitcoin and had a deployed hash rate of 10.5 exahash per second.

Hear from Riot’s VP of Research, @BitcoinPierre, as he touches on Riot's active community… pic.twitter.com/lD3YJVkMct
— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) June 16, 2023

Despite the news, Riot’s share price fell 7.2% to $10.77 on June 26, according to Google Finance.

Meanwhile, on June 21, Bitcoin miner Akron Energy announced that it bought a 200-megawatt (MW) mining facility in Hannibal, Ohio, for an undisclosed amount.

It’s the Sydney-based firm’s first expansion into the United States following a $26 million raise on June 20.

The firm plans to immediately complete the first design stage of the Hannibal facility, which it hopes will provide 100 MW of power.

The hosting services will be provided to the firm’s institutional-scale clients in the Bitcoin industry.

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BTC miner Rhodium faces lawsuit over an alleged M in unpaid fees: Report

Coin Telegraph

Crypto mining firm Riot Platforms seeks to terminate “certain hosting agreements” with Rhodium and requests exemption from any owed power credits to the counterparty.

Crypto mining firm Riot Platforms – formerly Riot Blockchain – has taken legal action in an effort to recover “more than $26 million” in alleged unpaid fees from Texas-based Bitcoin (BTC) miner, Rhodian Enterprises.

According to Riot Platform's Q1 2023 financial report published on May 10, Whinstone, a wholly owned subsidiary of Riot, filed a petition on May 2 in the 20th District Court of Milam County, Texas. It alleged that Rhodium Enterprises breached its contract by failing to pay hosting and service fees associated with its use of Whinstone's facilities for mining operations.

Riot is seeking to recover “more than $26 million,” plus legal fees and other expenses that are incurred during the legal proceedings, as outlined in the report.

It was further requested that “certain hosting agreements” with Rhodium are terminated and proposed that it is exempt from repaying any outstanding power credits to the Texas-based Bitcoin mining company.

*Extract of Riot Platforms quarterly report for the period ended March 31. Source: SEC*

Although the disclosure of unpaid fees was stated, Riot was transparent with stakeholders, acknowledging that “the likelihood” of recovering the funds at this stage is uncertain. It noted:

“Because this litigation is still at this early stage, we cannot reasonably estimate the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome or the magnitude of such an outcome, if any.”

It was reported that Rhodium was served on May 8, and have until May 30 to respond.

The report also emphasized Riot’s growth in mining operations, stating that it had mined “2,115 Bitcoins,", representing an increase of 50.5% from the number of Bitcoins mined during the first quarter of 2022.

Furthermore, stakeholders were reassured in the report that Riot does not have any affiliations with the banks that have experienced collapses in recent times. It noted:

“We did not have any banking relationships with Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, or First Republic Bank, and currently hold our cash and cash equivalents at multiple banking institutions.

Riot anticipates that crypto mining companies will continue to experience challenges due to the "significant price decline of Bitcoin" and “other national and global macroeconomic factors,” as seen in 2022.

It was stated that given Riot’s "relative position" in the industry, “liquidity and absence of long-term debt,” it is positioned to “benefit from such consolidation.”

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