With Bitcoin's highly anticipated 'halving' event just 6 months away, Canada-based Bitcoin mining firm Iris Energy has announced another major expansion to its computer fleet.
On Friday, Bitmain confirmed that its total hashrate has increased by 25 percent, from 5.6 exahashes per second to 7.0 EH/s, by adding 7,000 of Bitmain's newest S21 miners to its fleet. The upgrade cost $19.6 million to the company.
The number of hashes that miners can generate to resolve a complicated mathematical problem that would require the creation of Bitcoin's next block. A quintillion hashes (exahash) is equivalent to one exahash.
The first miners to build each block receive a substantial remuneration from their fellow miners, who are rewarded with a freshly minted BTC. The faster miners can produce hashes, the more BTC they earn, and the more revenue they generate. So increasing the hashrate raises the chances that a company will win that race each time there's a new block on the network.
After the announcement, shares of Iris surged 9.5%, up from a record high of Rs.1,500 a day earlier.
After the machines' ship in early 2024, miner economics is expected to drastically change in light of the April 2024 halving. The halving will reduce the guaranteed BTC rewards per block to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC.
On the other hand, mining may make it a less sustainable business, resulting in only the most cost-effective firms being able to compete in the industry. The halving is a catalyst for Bitcoin bull markets, which could ultimately make the industry more profitable in dollar-denominated terms.
Many major mining firms, such as Blockstream, Riot, CleanSpark, and others, have announced significant expansion plans this year, often with explicit reference to the Bitcoin halving. CleanSpark's CFO Gary A. Vecchiarelli said in a statement that ''s bitcoin halving'' was a decision made by the company to expand its operations in June.