Public BTC miners increased Bitcoin production in January
The end of the year was marked as unlucky for Bitcoin miners due to unexpected weather conditions in North America. Sudden storms and power outages severely hampered mining operations in the country. Earlier in September, the three largest US-based Bitcoin miners suffered losses of nearly $1 billion due to adverse market conditions.
Meanwhile, in January 2023, most public miners increased their BTC production due to stable electricity prices and better weather conditions. According to the Hahrate Index report, the public BTC miners experienced a steady growth in hash rate and Bitcoin production compared to the last month. Clean Spark, Core Scientific and Riot are the top performers in January, according to the report.
America’s leading sustainable Bitcoin miner Clean Spark increased its BTC production by 50%, with 697 Bitcoins in January. According to CEO Zach Bradford, the firm hit an exceptional peak of 98% at the start of the year. Core Scientific, a NASDAQ-listed Bitcoin mining company, produced 1,527 coins, followed by Riot, the second-leading producer, which generated 740 BTC in January.
At the start of 2023, the hash rate had increased slightly; the US-based Cipher increased its hash rate by more than 50% at 4.3 EH/s. Clean Spark also increased its hash rate by 6.6 EH/s, and Core Scientific slightly increased its hash rate by 17 EH/s from 15.7 in December.
Jaran Mellerud wrote in his analysis that “Cipher has built hard during this bear market, and I expect the company to reach its peak target of 6EH/s self-extraction capacity by the end of Q1 2023.” According to Blockchain.com data, the Bitcoin hash rate was around 290 on Sunday, up from a weekly average of 275 hash rate last week. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is trading at 21,619, down 5.21% from the last seven days.
In December 2022, Core Scientific filed for bankruptcy due to adverse market conditions. The prolonged bear market and the fluctuating price of Bitcoin affected the crypto miner. Despite the bankruptcy, the company continued Bitcoin mining to pay back debts.
According to a Feb. 2 lawsuit, Core Scientific said old crypto mining rigs “are no longer necessary for current operations and future business plans.” It further said, “the principal amount of the NYDIG debt exceeds the value of the ASIC security.”
Mellerud said: “Core Scientific is likely to see shares shrink next month as it will hand over 18% of its mining rigs to lender New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) in exchange for eradicating $39 million in debt.”
