Weekly Mining Newsletter
Bitcoin miners deleverage and catch a breath as mining difficulty goes down.
Highlights of the week
The biggest news over the week is that Bitfarms sold 3,000 BTC in two equal batches — not necessarily to gain cash liquidity but to reduce the bitcoin-secured loan payable to Galaxy Digital. Bitfarms borrowed a $100 million resolving loan from Galaxy earlier this year. The miner said it was required to pledge more bitcoin if the collateral value drops below 133% of the outstanding loan. Bitfarms disclosed it had 6,075 BTC as of May 31. Due to the market sell-off after June 11, the value of its BTC reserves dropped below the 133% line, resulting in the need to deleverage. On the other hand, the good news is that BTC's price has bounced back to $21,000 after crashing to $18,000 — at least for now — and the mining difficulty has dropped by 2.35%.
Regulation
China’s Guizhou Province To Slap Backdated Power Charges on Uncovered Crypto Miners — forkast.news
Another Chinese province has introduced higher retroactive electricity charges for cryptocurrency mining projects when they are discovered.
Republicans Seek to Counter Effort to Curtail Crypto Mining The word of caution comes after Democrats warned a top environmental official in April about harms of digital assets mining.
Finger Lakes Dems Give Hochul Ultimatum on Crypto Mining Several democratic local officials from the region have said that they won’t vote for Gov. Kathy Hochul if she doesn’t crack down on crypto mining operations across the state, for fear of the industry’s environmental impacts.
Aberdeen Board of Zoning Adjustment approves 80 more bitcoin mining machines Aberdeen Board of Zoning Adjustment approves 80 more bitcoin mining machines
Iran to Cut Power Supply to Licensed Crypto Miners
Electricity to all 118 legal crypto mining centers in Iran to cease from June 22 ahead of seasonal spike in power demand, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, spokesman for country’s power industry, said in interview with state TV.
Finance
Marathon Digital Cut to Neutral at B. Riley on Bitcoin Price Declines — www.coindesk.com
Riot Blockchain is the best-positioned miner amidst the current market volatility, Wall Street firm B. Riley said in a new report.
Bitfarms Gives up 3,000 BTC To Pay Down $100 Million Loan From Galaxy Digital Bitcoin miner Bitfarms paid down part of a $100 million loan with the sale of 3,000 bitcoin.
Miner Bit Digital Made $8 Million in Bitcoin Mining Revenue in Q1 2022 Crypto miner Bit Digital announced that in the first quarter of 2021 it brought in $8 million in bitcoin mining revenue.
Hardware
Crypto Miners Start Dumping GPUs, RTX 3080s Listed for $523 — www.tomshardware.com Cryptocurrency miners in China have started offloading their graphics cards on the second-hand market, and RTX 3080s are going for $523.
Ethereum Miners Spent $15 Billion on GPUs Alone During Latest Cryptocraze Tens of billions of dollars were spent on GPUs for Ethereum mining and the other gear, according to a new report.
Infrastructure
Bitcoin Miner Crusoe Acquires Electrical Manufacturer Easter-Owens — www.theblock.co
Bitcoin mining company Crusoe has acquired electrical manufacturer Easter-Owens Electric Co. in a bid to vertically integrate the company.
Digihost Technology Acquires 55 MW Site in Alabama Digihost Technology Inc. (TSXV:DGHI) has completed a transaction with Grede II to acquire property in the state of Alabama.
Bitcoin Miner Aspen Creek Digital Opens 6-Megawatt Facility in Colorado Bitcoin miner Aspen Creek Digital Corporation has opened a new facility in Colorado and plans to open more in Texas.
General & Features
Low Bitcoin Price Weighs on Crypto Mining Stocks - WSJ — www.wsj.com Worried about falling profits and high fixed costs, investors have been dumping publicly traded bitcoin miners like Riot Blockchain and TeraWulf
Almost $4 Billion in Bitcoin (BTC) Miner Loans Are Coming Under Stress The prolonged slump in Bitcoin is making it more difficult for some miners to repay the up to $4 billion in loans they have backed by their equipment, posing a potential risk to major crypto lenders.
Electricity used to mine bitcoin plummets as crypto crisis widens | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian Consumption down by third since 11 June, with even sharper falls among other cryptocurrency networks
Terra Bitcoin Mining Pool Officially Launches The bitcoin mining pool is a partnership between bitcoin miner Argo and Canada-based DMG Blockchain Solutions.