By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Through its acquisitions of more Bitcoin Antminers, Riot Blockchain has increased its Bitcoin mining hash rate capacity.
Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT) stock closed yesterday trading at $22.74, up 1.84% from the day’s opening price. Meanwhile, RIOT stock had gained approximately 3.17% during Tuesday’s pre-market to trade around $23.44. The short pump has directly been attributed to news that the company has entered into an agreement with Bitmain Technologies Limited to acquire 18,000 Antminer. According to the announcement, Riot Blockchain will receive Antminer model S19 XP Bitcoin from Bitmain, with 35% of the total price already disbursed. Notably, the paid amount is ostensibly refundable according to the purchase agreement. The two companies closed the deal worth $202.86 million.
In regards to the purchase agreement, approximately 3,000 S19 XP Bitcoin Antminers will be delivered monthly between July and December 2022. Consequently, the remaining amount will be paid in advance of the respective shipments.
Riot Blockchain and Bitcoin Mining Industry
Riot Blockchain is on a mission to support the Bitcoin blockchain through large-scale mining in the United States. Through acquisitions of more Bitcoin Antminers, the company has increased its Bitcoin mining hash rate capacity.
The company has significantly benefited from the booming Bitcoin market and the crypto industry at large. More so now that the American legislators are busy drafting new crypto policies. Additionally, the country’s regulators including the SEC approved the Bitcoin ETF last year, which was taken as an approval of the crypto industry in the country and its allies.
Riot Blockchain as a North American company greatly benefited from China’s ban on Bitcoin miners. Furthermore, the remaining 10% of the Bitcoin to be mined is distributed in the next over 100 years, thereby making a lucrative market.
Following El Salvador’s move to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, and mining using volcanos, more institutional money has proliferated the industry enormously in the past few months. Notably, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele forecasts that Bitcoin will reach $100k in 2022. Additionally, he expects two more countries to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender in the year.
Notably, Riot Blockchain has a deployed hash rate capacity of 3.0 EH/s utilizing approximately 91 megawatts (MW) of energy. The company has Bitcoin mining operations in Whinstone, Texas, and Massena, New York.
The advertisements in the Bitcoin mining industry come at a time when Bitcoin and the entire altcoin industry remain under tight consolidation pressure. However, the breakout is anticipated to be enormous to a new all-time high. Some analysts predict the crypto industry will overtake the gold market cap in the next decade.