Hut 8 🤝 W/ Bitmain To Deploy New 💧 ⛏️er + MOAR Site Buys!
W38 '24 | 9.16-9.22.24 | Issue XCVIII | Block Height 862433
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W38 ‘24 Vibe Check
The Overview Vibe
Weekly Industry Metrics
Headlines & News
The Media Vibe
Energy Corner
The Meme Vibe
The Overview Vibe
The Fed announced a rate cut of 50 bps this week, sending Bitcoin up towards ~$63K for most of the week. During an intra-epoch difficulty adjustment, hashprice mirrored BTC price up to ~$43/PH/DAY for the first time since last August. Hashrate tagged 619 EH/s before recovering above to ~637, suggesting some switching to/from merge mining of Fractal Bitcoin after it had a price bubble pop last week. With the relative downward swing in hashrate from a couple of weeks ago, difficulty is expected to adjust 5% downward early next week, proving a short breath for miners across the network.
As JPowell got jiggy with rate cuts, Wall Street opportunistically signaled positive vibes towards Bitcoin. BlackRock published a bullish insight piece, with CEO Larry Fink finally saying that Bitcoin is legit. This is most likely due to the SEC approving options trading of BlackRock’s Spot ETF. GigaChard Micheal Saylor finished raising another $1B of convertible notes to buy more Bitcoin. Looking to run a Microstrategy playbook, the bois at Cathedra Bitcoin published their Bitcoin treasury strategy to stack as many sats per share. Very cool y’all!
In what is a weekly cadence in the market now, site acquisition continued in full stride this week. CLSK deepened its footprint in Mississippi by scooping up 16.5 MW across two sites for $5.775M ($350,000/MW). This move will allow them to energize ~ 1 EH/s by EOY as it looks to develop the greenfield pipeline in TN and WY. Near Memphis, private peer Merkle Standard closed on a 45 MW site. In ERCOT, Soluna closed on an 189 MW co-located at a wind farm in Texas. It looks like demand for both turnkey and greenfield sites continues to stay strong even as hashprice struggles to move upward.
In a very interesting move, energy pipeline stacker and managed service giant Hut 8 announced a strategic hosting partnership with Bitmain at the Token2049 in Singapore this week. Hut 8 will host ~15 EH/s of Bitmains newest ASIC model, the U3S21EXPH. Not only is this ASIC a hydro/direct-to-chip unit with announced monster specs of 860 TH/s and 13J/T, but it also represents Bitmain’s pivot towards the traditional server form factor. Hut 8 will be deploying ~17,000-18,000 units, of which it has the option to buy after six months of hosting for Bitmain. I will be very interested to learn more about the results of these ASICs and if they will significantly influence the infrastructure strategy for large miners who look to close the gap between ASICs and AI servers.
The most bullish news this week that I smash sent into my family chat was Microsoft backing the PPA to revive Unit 1 of the Three Mile Nuclear Plant owned by Constellation Energy. What news or memes did you share with your fam this week? I hope everyone had a great weekend! Remember to call your mom, stay hydrated, and share grateful vibes!
Bitcoin/Mining Metrics
BTC price2: ~$62,828.37 @ EOW. +4.64% WOW.
Hash price1: $43.26 PH/Day @ EOW. +4.95% WOW.
Network Hashrate (SMA 7 Day)1: ~637 EH/s @ EOW. +0.31% WOW.
Difficulty1: 92.47 T @ EOW. 0.00% WOW.
ASIC Retail Price (s19/m30 family)1: $6.05/TH/s @ EOW. -3.51% WOW.
Sources: Hashrate Index1, Bitbo2
Headlines & News
Featured
Three Mile Island nuclear plant to help power Microsoft's data-center needs - CNBC.
Hut 8 and BITMAIN Expand Innovation Partnership with Launch of Next-Generation BITMAIN Miner - Press Release.
Trump Buys Burgers With Bitcoin at NYC Crypto Hangout PubKey - CoinDesk.
Bitcoin Mining Shutdown Sparks 20% Hike in Norwegian Town Energy Bills - TheMinerMag.
Bhutan, Tiny Country With $3B GDP, Holds Over $780M in Bitcoin - CoinDesk.
Inside Riot’s $204m gambit to take over Bitfarms - BlockSpace Media.
General PubCo Updates
August Production & Operational Dupates
IREN to increase AI Cloud Services to 10% of earnings - Press Release.
Project Rosa Boosts Soluna’s Capacity with 187 MW of Sustainable Energy for AI and Bitcoin Mining - Press Release.
Bitdeer to Auction S19 Bitcoin Miners Starting at $1/TH/s - TheMinerMag.
Gryphon Digital Mining Adds Operational Expertise, Names Steve Gutterman as Chief Executive Officer, Jimmy Vaipoulos as Chairman - Press Release.
Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. Debuts Bitcoin Treasury Strategy - Letter.
Operations & Site Updates
CleanSpark Acquires Two Additional Sites in Mississippi and Closes Second Site in Wyoming - Press Release.
Merkle Standard Expands Bitcoin Mining to Memphis with 45MW - TheMinerMag.
Capital Markets & M&A
Cathedra Bitcoin Announces Non-Brokered LIFE Offering of C$2.5 Million - Press Release.
Hardware/Tech Updates
Fractal Bitcoin: A Misleading Affinity - Bitcoin Magazine.
Research/Reports/Newsletters
The Media Vibe
Energy Corner
The Meme Vibe
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