The competition between the two largest public Bitcoin mining companies by production has intensified, with CleanSpark boosting its realized hashrate by 27% in October, closing the gap with MARA.
MARA, the largest public mining operator, announced on Monday a monthly production of 717 BTC in October, a slight increase from September. This production level implied a realized hashrate of 32.43 EH/s.
CleanSpark, on the other hand, reported on Monday that it mined 655 BTC last month, marking a 32.8% increase compared to September, as the firm powered up newly arrived miners and recently acquired Bitcoin mining sites.
CleanSpark’s production increase, when adjusted for Bitcoin’s network hashrate and block reward fluctuations, indicated a 27% rise in its realized hashrate from 23.33 EH/s in September to 29.62 EH/s in October.
Following the recent expansion in hashrate capacity, MARA and CleanSpark accounted for 4.61% and 4.21% of all block rewards mined in October, respectively. And both companies are accelerating their efforts to energize more hashing power. MARA and CleanSpark disclosed that their month-end energized hashrate in October expanded to 40.2 EH/s and 31.3 EH/s.
Overall, Bitcoin’s monthly average hashrate reached 700 EH/s for the first time in October, amid the escalating competition between the largest public mining companies. Despite Bitcoin’s market price recovering to $69,000, the hashprice remains at $45/PH/s due to the increasing network difficulty.
Both MARA and CleanSpark appear to have increased their financial leverage in the past month. MARA disclosed that 4,499 BTC of its 27,562 BTC holdings are restricted, likely as part of its $200 million Bitcoin-backed loan.
In Q2, CleanSpark entered a $50 million Bitcoin-secured loan facility with Coinbase. In its October update, CleanSpark reported that 1,108 BTC of its 8,701 BTC holdings are pledged as collateral, suggesting it has drawn on the $50 million revolving credit.
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