Blockchain infrastructure company, Bitfarms, confirmed the purchase of another 48,000 new miners from Chinese rig company MicroBT on Tuesday.
These new rigs won’t be online soon however, it is expecting the first shipment of miners to arrive close to January 2022. The rest would arrive over the course of the year.
The addition of these miners alone would increase hashing capacity to around 5.0 EH. Bitfarms has currently got just over 1.0 EH capacity, which it already expects to expand on before the end of 2021. Their goal for the end of 2022 is to surpass 8.0 EH.
“With this equipment purchase agreement, Bitfarms is positioned to remain in the top tier of publicly-traded crypto mining companies in the world,” said Bitfarms CEO Emiliano Grodzki in a statement.
While the size of the purchase is an impressive surprise, the source of the miners isn’t. MicroBT has been the go-to supplier for miners by Bitfarms. In addition to the 48,000 just purchased, the company already has 12,000 rigs.
Miners Face Increased Difficulty
Bitfarms increasing its mining power is central to its business model. It could be seen as a response to the current climb in network difficulty. The beginning of 2021 has seen mining difficulty increase steadily since its first big jump on Jan. 9.
As of March.1, network difficulty was at 21.724 trillion, the highest in its history, according to analytics site Blockchain. This increase in difficulty plays into an increase in hash rate as well, with the most recent at a level of 154.58m TH/s.
It’s impossible to say if this will continue or how a future fluctuation in BTC price could change current trends. The BTC price has been reaching new heights alongside these all-time highs in difficulty and hash rate. These statistics haven’t indicated a symbiotic relationship in the past.
Even in its purchase, Bitfarms appears to have ensured it will not be caught out with an oversupply of rigs should mining conditions change. The company has covered itself by negotiation delivery and contract adjustment options.
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