CleanSpark, one of North America’s largest public bitcoin mining firms by realized hashrate, announced on Friday that it has surpassed the 10 EH/s threshold thanks to firmware optimization and fleet upgrades.
CleanSpark said its operational teams have been replacing older mining equipment with Bitmain’s Antminer S19XPs, resulting in an overall fleet efficiency of 27.8 J/TH.
The company bought 12,500 S19XPs in June for $40 million, which totaled 1.76 EH/s. It recently announced another pre-order of 4.4 EH/s in Bitmain’s Antminer S21 in a bid to increase the overall target to 20 EH/s.
This fleet upgrade aligns with the mining industry’s common strategy to enhance efficiency in anticipation of bitcoin’s halving next year, which is expected to exert further pressure on the gross margin of bitcoin mining.
CleanSpark was the third largest public mining company by the actual amount of bitcoin produced in September, following Marathon and Core Scientific, and the fourth largest holder of bitcoin reserves among its public mining peers.
The company’s self-mining market share by bitcoin production reached a peak of 2.33% in January but gradually declined to 1.73% in June, before rebounding to 2.24% in September. Notably, the firm granted performance stock units to its senior management team, which vested as the energization reached 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, and 9 EH/s, respectively.
Bitcoin mining site image via Danielle Nazareno / CleanSpark