China’s status as a world leader in Bitcoin (BTC) mining has been indisputable for at least the last five years, but some industry players in the United States and Canada are not satisfied with that leadership.
Now, new signs confirm that the industry is preparing to take off strong in North America. Apparently, a great movement is brewing to challenge the dominance of cryptocurrency mining traditionally deployed in the Asian country.
Is China’s dominance in Bitcoin mining under threat? Five press releases issued, this February 10 and 11, 2021, by North American companies, suggest that it is. Subtracting leadership from China’s mining industry would be a process that may take years, but some plans have been revealed that suggest that a new phase of the industry is beginning.
Among the new projects, one of the most ambitious is that of the Riot Blockchain company, one of the few in this industry that is listed on the United States stock exchange (Nasdaq). His plan is to reach a hash rate of 1.6 exahash (EH / s) by the fourth quarter of 2021 , once he gets his 2,002 new S19 teams up and running Pro Antminers, which it just received, as announced in a statement.
With the deployment of its new equipment, Riot will have a total of 11,542 Antminers in operation to triple its current computing capacity. However, the company’s plan goes much further, as it has ordered some 26,100 S19 Pro and S19j Antminers miners from Bitmain, which the manufacturer will ship in batches on a monthly basis until October of this year. Once fully deployed, the company estimates that will have a total of 37,642 Antminers in operation to reach a hash rate capacity of 3.8 EH / s.
Also in the United States, Compute North, with operations in Texas, South Dakota and Nebraska, reported that it closed a round of growth capital for USD 25 million in debt financing. With this capital injection, the company plans to double its mining capacity, which is currently in the order of 920 petahash per second (PH / s).
The company’s focus is focused on the construction and operation of facilities, specially designed to scale quickly and operate with high profitability. In this way, it allows organizations to maximize their operations based on cryptocurrency mining or development of blockchain projects, among others.
Compute North ensures that it is seeing strong growth in customer demand , due to the increasing interest that institutional investors have in bitcoin. Therefore, it is on the way to expand its operations to enable new spaces with mining equipment housed ready to be occupied by its new clients.
Higher investment, more miners, more bitcoin in North America
On the other hand, Bitfarms, one of the largest cryptocurrency companies in Quebec, Canada, announced that it closed a financing round that will allow a new injection of capital in the order of 40 million Canadian dollars (US $ 31 million). This is the third round of financing announced in less than two months by the company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Toronto. Last month, Bitfarms reported two more rounds of financing, worth $ 20 million each.
“The net proceeds from the offering will be used by the company primarily to acquire additional mining equipment , expand our infrastructure and improve its working capital “, says the statement issued by the company.
Another Canadian company dedicated to bitcoin mining, DMG Blockchain Solutions, which owns a data center of 2,500 square meters in British Columbia, reported on its plans to strengthen its leadership in the industry.
In this regard, it detailed that, in its 85 MW electrical substation located in Christina Lake, it has already completed the installation of 60 MW in transformers and other high and medium voltage electrical equipment. At the same time, is working on the deployment of its immersion cooling system for its mining equipment , with which it plans to increase its profits by reducing capital expenditures. With the new method you will control the temperature of the equipment with liquid refrigerants.
The company adds that it plans to increase its bitcoin mining capacity by 30% which is currently 2.0 EH / s (exahash). This, together with a decrease in overall power consumption per hash rate of up to 10%, “constitutes significant savings potential for DMG’s operations. Combined with lower capital expenditures, it significantly reduces the return on investment time per megawatt of mining deployed, up to 25% “, the company points out in its statement.
DMG’s strategy consists of executing all your operations under your immersion system. With it, they are sure to gain a competitive advantage beyond what air cooling can achieve.
While plans abound in North America To install new mining farms or expand existing ones, there are also similar projects in China. As CriptoNoticias reported in January, there are companies that are making preparations to enter the industry, such as, for example, the video game operator The9 Limited that signed five agreements to acquire 26,000 equipment Bitcoin mining. With this agreement the company plans to enter the cryptocurrency mining business.
In any case, other countries such as Iran, Russia or Kazakhstan could also capitalize on the fact that China loses the dominance it has tax in the bitcoin mining industry. But given current conditions it would not be in the short or medium term. It should be remembered that the main manufacturers of mining equipment such as Bitmain, Ebang or Innosilicon, for example, have their headquarters in China.
