Bitcoin Mining Firm Riot Secures 33,000 New Rigs for $162 Million

Riot Platforms—one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in the world—is set to boost its hashrate capacity to new heights after purchasing 33,280 mining rigs from MicroBT, a leading manufacturer of the machines needed to mine new coins. 

The Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) order adds up to $162.9 million, making it a standout purchase even among a slew of similar investments from competing firms this year. The machines themselves, however, aren’t scheduled for delivery until December 2023, and won’t be deployed until the first quarter of 2024. 

“Riot is excited to announce our first order of Bitcoin miners for our Corsicana Facility from MicroBT,” said Jason Les, CEO of Riot, in a press release. “These new models are among the most powerful and efficient miners ever made for Bitcoin mining and are designed and produced specifically for immersion cooling systems.”

Corsicana, Texas is a business-friendly community located just 50 miles southeast of downtown Dallas on Interstate 45.

The ASIC models purchased by Riot include the M56S+ and M56S++, the latter of which was released in late April. It boasts a power efficiency of 22 joules per terahash (J/TH), and a maximum hashrate of 230 terahashes per second (TH/s). A “hash” is an attempt to answer the complex mathematical problems miners must solve to construct a new Bitcoin block. Mining machines consume energy generating as many guesses as possible to be the first to solve the problem and to mine the next block, which carries a current reward of 6.25 BTC. 

One terrahash is a trillion hashes, while one exahash is one quintillion hashes. Riot’s latest purchase is set to bring its hash rate capacity up by 7.6 EH/s, to a total 20.1 EH/s across the company’s facilities. 

The company has also secured an option to purchase an addition 66,560 M56S++ miners under the same terms, which will be valid through the end of next year. If executed, Riot’s hashrate capacity would increase to 35.4 EH/s. 

According to data from ycharts, the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate currently sits at 398 EH/s. 

According to Les, next year’s deployment will “further enhance our already strong fleet efficiency in advance of the upcoming Bitcoin halving.” The halving, expected in April 2024, will decrease miners’ block rewards to 3.125 BTC, and is largely expected to pump Bitcoin’s price in the months that follow. 

CleanSpark CFO Gary A. Vecchiarelli also referenced the halving when discussing his company’s acquisition of two Georgia mining facilities for $9.3 million last week. On Tuesday, the NASDAQ traded Iris Energy (IREN) also confirmed plans to expand capacity, causing their stock to rise 21% on the day.