In North and South America: Bitcoin miners on expansion course

Bitcoin’s price explosion gives miners significant returns. For many, the hour seems to be a good time to further expand your own hashrate.

Canadian Bitcoin miners DMG Blockchain Solutions and Bitfarms recently announced plans to expand their own mining capacities. While DMG wants to increase its own computing power to 500 Petahash per second, Bitfarms with a data center in Argentina is aiming for eight Etahash per second by the end of 2022.

DMG buys 3,600 mining devices

In order to expand its own hashrate from 140 to 500 Petahash per second, DMG acquired 3,600 ASIC miners. The listed company based in Vancouver made the acquisition on April 19th public. Accordingly, the delivery of the devices for Bitcoin mining will begin in August of this year. The process should then be completed within 12 months.

With the acquired devices, DMG would like to increase the computing power in its 85-megawatt “showcase system”. With a view to 2022, however, the commissioning of further mining operations is also possible. CEO Sheldon Benett said:

While the hardware market remains extremely active, our established presence in the industry ensures that we continue to secure the right equipment to maximize our business and continue to provide optimal value to our shareholders.

DMG Blockchain Solutions is not only active in Bitcoin mining. The company also offers data analysis services and develops blockchain solutions for business customers.

Bitcoin mining for half the price

In its expansion plans, Bitfarms aims to reduce the central cost factor in reducing BTC: the price of electricity. To this end, the Canadian mining company signed a non-binding letter of intent for the operation of a 60 MW plant in Argentina back in October last year. The project became more concrete in the meantime and Bitfarms announced on April 19th announced the conclusion of a contract for a 210 megawatt mining center.

For the first four years, Bitfarms is guaranteed to receive electricity for $ 0.022 per kilowatt hour. This represents an enormous saving: While the cost of mining a bitcoin in the 4th quarter of 2020 in Quebec was 7.5,000 US dollars, Bitfarms estimates that it would have paid only 4,125 US dollars in Argentina in the same period. The cost reduction is 45 percent.

Bitfarms therefore announced that it would move a large part of its old Bitcoin miners to Argentina. Although they are less efficient than new machines, the low electricity costs mean that they can continue to be used profitably. But the latest technology should also be used in Argentina. Bitfarms announced the order of 48,000 MicroBT miners back in March. The company has now said that these devices are also intended for Argentina.

Bitfarms and DMG are part of a general trend in the mining industry. Because even competitors like Hut 8 are constantly trying to increase their own computing power.