Iris Energy to almost triple hashrate with an estimated 44,000 new BTC miners
Australia-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, Iris Energy, revealed that it will nearly triple its mining capacity with the addition of thousands of mining rigs.
On February 13, the firm said it purchased an additional 4.4 Exa Hashes per second (EH/s) of Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro ASIC miners, bringing its self-mining capacity to 5.5 EH/s from 2.0 EH/s.
Based on the S19j Pro’s maximum hash rate of 100 Tera Hashes per second (TH/s), the purchase adds an estimated 44,000 miners to the fleet, according to Cointelegraph’s calculations.
Daniel Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of Iris said the purchase “is a significant milestone” for the company and added that it has been a “challenging period for both the industry and the markets more generally.”
Iris said that the new miners will be installed in the company’s centers, but did not mention in which locations. The company operates three plants at different locations in British Columbia, Canada and one in Texas, USA.
The company used $67 million of remaining upfront payments to ASIC miner Bitmain to finance the purchase of the rigs “without any additional cash outlay.”
Iris had a 10 EH/s contract with Bitmain that it says “has been fully resolved, with no remaining obligations.” It stated that it remains debt-free.
The firm said it is also considering options to sell surplus miners above its mining capacity of 5.5 EH/s to re-invest.
Related: Core Scientific will hand over 27,000 rigs to pay off $38 million in debt
Last November, the company was forced to disconnect miners used as collateral for a $107.8 million loan when the units produced “insufficient cash flow to service their respective debt financing obligations.”
Over the past few months, cryptocurrency miners have faced a squeeze from multiple directions, having to confront low Bitcoin prices amid high hash rates, high mining difficulties, and high energy prices.
The pressure led to listed Bitcoin miners selling almost all of the BTC mined during 2022, with data from blockchain research firm Messari showing that Iris sold around 100% of the nearly 2,500 BTC mined that year.
A February analysis from the Hashrate Index shows that listed miners increased their output in January with better weather and stable electricity prices helping the production surge. Iris’ January production resulted in 172 BTC compared to 123 BTC in December.
