This article first appeared in Miner Weekly, BlocksBridge Consulting’s weekly newsletter curating the latest news in bitcoin mining and data analysis from TheMinerMag. Subscribe to receive in your inbox once a week.
Following China’s bitcoin mining ban in 2021, a geographic hashrate migration has fueled a round of massive infrastructure buildout elsewhere in the world. A lot of that building happened in Texas, and the Lone Star State has become a global mining hub bolstering multi-gigawatt of mining power capacity.
Now, it appears we may see a new wave of infrastructure boom that could further strengthen the network and hashrate dominance in North America.
Over the past few weeks, several major mining companies have laid out their site expansion plans in both near and long terms. Such infrastructure expansion will progress with their $1.2 billion preordered bitcoin miners that will begin shipment next year in anticipation of the halving in April.
The chart above maps out major mining companies’ power capacity expansion plans, based on their recent announcements and investor presentation decks.
Specifically, by the end of Q2, Iris Energy, Riot and Northern Data expect to have 580 MW of additional capacity in Texas alone. Northern Data also plans to fully energize a newly purchased 30 MW site in North Dakota in Q1.
Bitfarms, on the other hand, has a current initiative to deploy 70 MW of energy in Paraguay by the first half of 2024, and then double that amount by the second half of 2024. Additionally, they plan to install 11 MW in Quebec during the second half of 2024.
Meanwhile, Core Scientific expects to expand 172 MW in Denton, Texas in Q2’24 after it successfully emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. That additional capacity is expected to be fully operational by 2025.
Iris Energy is undergoing the Phase 1 expansion of 80 MW in its Childress site in Texas, which is anticipated to be fully operational by Q2. The Childress site has another 500 MW of available power that will be expanded in five additional phases. In addition, per its November investor deck, Iris Energy has signed another new site in West Texas for 1.4 gigawatts beyond 2026.
Finally, Cipher Mining closed a transaction this week to buy a new Texas site with a capacity potential of 300 MW. It did not specify the construction plan but indicated that at least 135 MW is expected to be energized by May 2026.
Apart from these announced mining power capacity expansions, Hut 8’s successful bid for four power plants totaling 310 MW in Canada could fuel potential proprietary mining and colocation capacities in the long term.
Regulation News
- Meeting Held for Noise Complaints on Talen Energy and Terawulf’s Bitcoin Mining Facility – PAHomepage
- Arkansas Legislator Urges Special Session to Repeal Controversial Crypto-mining Law – KATV
Hardware and Infrastructure News
- Hut 8 Set to Acquire 310 MW Power Plants with ‘Successful’ Bid – TheMinerMag
- Northern Data Buys 300 MW Site for Texas Bitcoin Mining – link
Corporate News
- Marathon Shoots for Record Production of 1,500 BTC in December – TheMinerMag
- Blockstream Preps New Sale of Notes Designed to Profit From Rebounding BTC Mining-Rig Prices – CoinDesk
Financial News
- Canaan Raises $25 Million via Sales of Preferred Shares – TheMinerMag
- Bit Origin Secures $6.74M to Build 25MW Crypto Mining Datacenter in Cheyenne, Wyoming – Link
- JPMorgan Downgrades CleanSpark, Upgrades Riot – CoinDesk
Feature
- Ben Gagnon: Mining Journey, Immersion, Hydro, Firmware, Bitfarms Future – The Mining Pod
- Ocean Pool Censoring Bitcoin Privacy? W/ Samourai Wallet – The Mining Pod
- Bitcoin Halving Is Poised to Unleash Darwinism on Miners – CoinDesk
- Why Bitcoin miners are unlikely to fight a moral battle over Ordinals – The Block