Bitcoin hashrate soars as Bitmain floods US with S19XPs
32EH/s of Antminer imports YTD by Bitmain alone
Bitcoin’s 7-day moving average hashrate keeps setting new records this month, hitting 450 EH/s now that summer curtailment activities in the U.S. have wound down. As a result, bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusted to an all-time high on Monday.
According to U.S bitcoin miner import records identified by TheMinerMag, Bitmain’s U.S entity registered in Georgia imported 2.33 million kilograms (or ~2,600 U.S. tons) of Antminers over Q3 and 4 million kilograms (4,400 U.S. tons) year-to-date.
The shipments were almost exclusively the S19XP model with a hashrate of either 134 TH/s or 141 TH/s. That translates to an estimated 19 EH/s in Q3 imports and 32 EH/s this year by Bitmain’s US entity alone. Below is a monthly breakdown overview.
Other identified Antminer importers over the past six months include NYDIG, Genesis Digital Asset, Galaxy Digital and DMG Blockchain, who received a combined ~2 EH/s, per TheMinerMag’s analysis.
It is unclear, though, how much of the goods are sitting idle in Bitmain’s warehouse or being plugged in by itself or by its customers. Either way, the influx of S19XPs to the U.S. continues to fuel bitcoin’s hashrate growth and the region’s geographic dominance.
Although the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has not updated its data since January 2022, it is interesting to gauge North America’s market share growth from the perspective of mining pools.
Cambridge’s data estimated the U.S. and Canada accounted for 37% and 6% of bitcoin’s hashrate as of January 2022, respectively. At the time, FoundryUSA, Luxor and MaraPool were mining about 20% of the total blocks. Over Q3 this year, they accounted for 36% of total blocks mined.
Hardware and Infrastructure News
CleanSpark Gears Up for Efficiency Race with 4.4 EH/s Preorder of AntMiner S21 - TheMinerMag
BitVM aims to enhance Bitcoin smart contract capabilities without fork - The Block
Financial News
Riot, Marathon get new bear ratings as J.P.Morgan expands bitcoin-mining coverage - Seeking Alpha
HODLers Stash BTC Worth $1.35B Each Month, Onchain Data Show - CoinDesk
Feature
Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny - NYT | Archive
Bitmain’s Cash Crunch? And Iris Energy’s ‘Triple Crown’ W/ Wolfie Zhao & Anthony Power - The Mining Pod
Lancium’s Patent Challenged, BitVM and Chinese Bitcoin Miners As ‘National Security’ Threat - The Mining Pod
Are you a journalist or analyst seeking more information or comments from industry experts? We’d love to help!