Crypto bear market will bring ‘excellent’ M&A opportunities: White Rock CEO

White Rock Management CEO Andy Long believes bear markets “present excellent opportunities” for M&A expansion in the crypto mining sector.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, the CEO of the cryptominer noted that companies that have managed their balance sheets effectively are in “good shape” during this bear market, and will continue to do well even with more volatility to come.

“The bear market has presented challenges for the miners who took advantage of the top of the market, but the sector has been here before and well-capitalized and efficient miners will do just fine,” he said.

Long suggested that the current bear trend will provide important M&A opportunities for such companies, as they will have proven to investors that they can survive extreme market conditions:

“Bear markets actually present excellent opportunities, so we expect to see M&A and consolidation activity in the mining sector involving both public and private players – to realize economies of scale and combine complementary operations.”

“We will also see network growth pick up again, not to the level predicted at the end of the year, but we will probably be at least 20% higher by the end of the year,” he added.

Long also noted that the mining sector in Texas has done well despite the ongoing heat wave. He noted the sector’s effective coordination with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to overcome energy supply issues over the past couple of months:

“There is a ton of activity in Texas and the mining sector is in good shape. Online miners are working with ERCOT to provide demand response during challenging weather, and we see continued growth ahead across the state.”

White Rock is a crypto mining company based in Switzerland, which claims to have installed plant capacity of around 24 megawatts.

In June, it announced plans to expand operations to the United States, starting in Texas. As part of the move, White Rock partnered with Natural Gas Onsite Neutralization (NGON) to operate out of the facility that uses “environmentally responsible” methods to mine Bitcoin (BTC).

Heat waves

As previously reported on July 11, mining companies such as Riot Blockchain and Core Scientific shut down parts of Texas mining operations in June to reduce stress on the power grid after temperatures rose well above 100 degrees.

Both f were proactive in easing the pressure on Texas’ energy supply, but another contributing factor was that energy prices had risen in the middle of the heat wave.

Related: Will the Bitcoin Mining Industry Collapse? Analysts explain why crisis is really opportunity

As a result of the move, the firms experienced reduced mining productivity. However, with the price of BTC up 14.7% in the past month, and with temperatures looking set to drop slightly to around the 90 degree mark, there is a sense that miners will be turning their machines back on as BTC mining’s profitability will be too good to ignore.

“The increase in the price of Bitcoin has led to increased profitability for miners, and some miners who were pushed offline in June and July have probably reconnected to their machines,” Jaran Mellerud, a cryptomining analyst at research firm Arcane Crypto, said in an interview with Bloomberg 5 .August.

The price of Bitcoin at the time of writing is $23,088.