Riot Blockchain Adds to Mining Fleet With $6M Bitmain Purchase

According to a press release, the company’s goal is to expand and upgrade its mining operations by securing the most energy-efficient miners on the market. “As part of Riot’s focus on the transformational expansion of its mining operations, it has opted to take advantage of new S19 Pro production capacity from its partner Bitmain by purchasing these 2,500 additional S19 Pro miners,” the release read. With its latest purchase, the mining company expects to “reach 842 PH/s in operational hash rate with 9,540 miners.” In other words, Riot Blockchain is aiming to increase its previous estimate of its deployed hash rate by approximately 50% by the end of 2020.

This is not the first notable purchase Riot has made in 2020. In August, it announced a purchase agreement for 8,000 Bitmain S19 Pro Antminers (110 TH) for $17.7 million from Bitmain. The delivery deployment of the latest batch of mining rigs is scheduled for December 2020. Riot’s purchase and ambitious hash rate goal further illustrate the enormous infrastructural requirements that Bitcoin miners face in order to stay competitive — and it’s far from alone in this sense. In the past few months, Bitmain has announced multiple purchase deals worth millions of dollars. Among the buyers were Core Scientific, which purchased 17,595 units of the Antminer 19 Series, and Marathon Patent Group, which entered into a long-term purchase contract with Bitmain to purchase 10,500 Antminer S19 Pro ASIC Miners.