Court Grants Core Scientific Motion to Host 4.1 EH/s for Bitmain

Service agreement provides rare details into Bitmain's proprietary mining business

Core Scientific has received court approval for its motion to purchase 27,000 S19j XPs from Bitmain and to host an additional 27,000 S19j XPs for the Chinese miner manufacturing giant.

On Thursday, the bankruptcy court in Texas overseeing Core’s Chapter 11 reorganization granted Core’s motion, which was submitted on Dec. 1, for an asset purchase agreement with Bitmain.

In September, Core initially announced its plan to acquire 27,000 S19j XPs, totaling a hashrate of 4.1 EH/s, from Bitmain for $76 million. Under the agreement, Core will pay $23.1 million in cash over three installments and $53.9 million in equity.

Concurrently, Core mentioned Bitmain’s status as a hosting customer for nearly five years and their agreement to scale up bitcoin mining operations in North America under a new hosting agreement.

According to the Dec. 1 motion, both parties amended the asset purchase agreement in November, introducing a master service contract wherein Core will host 27,000 S19j XPs on behalf of Bitmain at a rate of $0.0745/kWh. This contract specifies no additional fees for deployment, removal, storage, or infrastructure.

The service agreement offers rare insights into Bitmain’s proprietary mining business, which is believed to have scaled up substantially in 2023.

Since June, Bitmain has shipped more than 40 EH/s of Antminer S19XPs to its U.S. subsidiary in Georgia, according to import records seen by TheMinerMag.

The hashrate connected to Bitmain-tied Antpool has also increased notably since 2023 as Antpool consolidates coinbase block rewards with nine other mining pools.