Weekly Mining Newsletter
New York Senate passes mining moratorium, bitcoin mining revenue shrinks and miners continue to sell BTC holdings.
Highlights of the week
This week's big news came on Friday when New York State Senate lawmakers voted to approve the bill that seeks to put a 2-year moratorium on PoW mining operations — which the State Assembly passed in April. The bill is now at the hands of Governor Kathy Hochul, who could either sign it into effect or veto it.
As CNBC reported: If the bill comes into effect, "for two years, unless a proof-of-work mining company uses 100% renewable energy, it would not be allowed to expand or renew permits, and new entrants would not be allowed to come online." That also means existing mining operations, even if not running on 100% renewable energy, are not immediately effected. As BlocksBridge client Greenidge said in response to the news: "Should the legislation be signed into law, our fully permitted power generation and cryptocurrency data center in Dresden, NY will continue to operate without interruption." Read more of the nuances below.
Regulation
New York Just Passed a Bitcoin Mining Ban — Here’s Everything That’s in It — www.cnbc.com Lawmakers in New York just passed a bill to ban new bitcoin mining operations.
Crypto Miners’ Energy, Climate Costs Draw White House Scrutiny — news.bloomberglaw.com
The Biden administration is teeing up policy recommendations to lower cryptocurrency mining’s energy consumption and emissions footprint.
Finance
Oman Backs U.S. Firm Mining Crypto to Cut Natural Gas Flaring — www.bloomberg.com Oman’s sovereign wealth fund took an equity stake in a U.S. firm that says it helps fossil-fuel producers cut flaring by using stranded natural gas to power cryptocurrency mining instead.
Bit Mining Completes First Closing in Bee Computing Acquisition — www.theblockcrypto.com BIT mining announced on Tuesday the first closing of the acquisition of Bee Computing, a hardware manufacturer.
Bitcoin Mining Revenues Fell by More Than 20% In May — www.theblockcrypto.com Bitcoin mining revenues were $906.2 million in May — a 21.6% drop from the previous month.
Bear Market Could See Some Crypto Miners Turning to M&A for Survival Companies that have already survived the previous down market and have enough capital and a sound business strategy will be able to survive this cycle.
Infrastructure
Kevin O’Leary-Backed Bitcoin Miner to Locate HQ in North Dakota — www.coindesk.com Bitzero plans to invest about $400 million to $500 million to build 200 megawatts of data centers in the state.
Crypto Mining Farm in Remote Washington Town Gets Green Light, Despite Wildlife Concerns
A proposed crypto mining farm in Washington state, pegged to be one of the biggest in the U.S., has gained conditional approval.
Tampa's LM Funding receives first batch of bitcoin mining machines
LM Funding's subsidiary US Digital Mining and Hosting received the first batch of 5,046 S19J Pro it ordered from Bitmain last September for a reported $31.6 million.
General & Features
As Bitcoin Falters, Crypto Miners Brace for a Crash — www.wired.com Electricity costs more, Bitcoin is worth less. What can possibly go wrong?
Bitcoin Miners Are Selling Off Their BTC Holdings to Cope With Market Headwinds — www.coindesk.com As the price of bitcoin falls, miners are cornered into powering off or selling their holdings.
Bitcoin Miner Riot Blockchain Names Its Head of Corporate Operations as New CFO — www.coindesk.com Current CFO Jeff McGonegal will retire and move into a new role as senior advisor of the miner in mid-August.