Public miners increased Bitcoin production, hash rate in January

The first production update of 2023 from listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies shows a steady increase in hash rate and an increase in BTC production compared to the previous month, according to a new analysis by the Hashrate Index.

The majority of public miners increased their bitcoin production in January, with CleanSpark increasing it by 50%, reaching a record monthly production of 697 Bitcoins. Core Scientific led BTC production, reaching 1,527 coins mined in January, followed by Riot, the second largest producer, which mines 740 Bitcoins a month.

Marathon and Cipher have seen significant increases in Bitcoin production, reaching 687 and 343 generated Bitcoins respectively, compared to 475 and 225 in December.

According to Bitcoin mining analyst Jaran Mellerud, better weather conditions in January and stable electricity prices helped miners increase production.” In December, a winter storm swept the North American continent and led to high electricity prices that periodically forced many of these companies to curtail operations. . With weather became more benign in January, electricity prices stabilized and miners were able to achieve higher uptime.”

Hash rate increased for most public miners in January, but at a slower pace than expected. The exception is the Texas-based Cipher which increased its hash rate by more than 50%, at 4.3 EH/s. “Cipher has been building hard during this bear market and I expect the company to reach its hashrate target of 6 EH/s of self-mining capacity by the end of Q1 2023,” Mellerud noted.

CleanSpark also increased its hash rate to 6.6 EH/s from 6.2 EH/si in December, following a series of acquisitions in late 2022. Hive also recorded growth in January, with hash rate increasing by nearly 30%, from 2.1 to 2.7 EH /s. “The company continues to replace its GPU fleet with ASICs, primarily with its in-house designed Buzzminers,” commented Hive Performance.

Core Scientific continued to increase its hash rate, reaching 17 EH/si in January from 15.7 in December. However, the numbers are expected to be affected by the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, which include an agreement with New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to pay off an outstanding debt of $38.6 million by handing over more than 27,000 used mining machines as collateral – representing 18 % of Core Scientific rigs.

Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 21, seeking to reorganize its debt after months of financial distress due to rising electricity costs and low Bitcoin prices.

Mellerud also pointed out that “these companies have on several occasions extended the timeline for their high hash rate expansion goals. Most of them have plans to drastically increase their operating hash rate by the end of Q2 this year. At the current rate, most of them will probably had to push its expansion plans further into the future.”