Riot Blockchain, through a media release, has stated that it was rewarded 187 Bitcoins (BTC), worth about $11.20 million, for its mining activity in March, reflecting an increase of 80% from March 2020 level. Additionally, the company stated that it owns over 1,565 Bitcoins as of March 31, valued at over $94 million.
The report on mining activity has come soon after the company has announced purchase of 42,000 S19j Antminers worth $138 million from cryptocurrency mining hardware equipment manufacturer Bitmain. About 6% of the rigs i.e. 2,400 Antminers are supposedly on its way to Coinmint’s mining center in New York, where Riot operates one of its mining unit. By the end of this month, Riot expects to have 16,146 Antminers in mining operation, with ability to produce 1.60 exahashes per second.
With an increase in the number of Antminers, Riot anticipates a considerable boost to its hashing power. By the end of 2021, the company anticipates to attain a hash rate of 3.80 EH/s, while the aggregate fleet capacity of 81,146 Antminers, anticipated to be completely operational before the fourth-quarter of 2022, may generate a hash rate of 7.7 EH/s. As per blockchain data, it would account for 4% of Bitcoin network’s entire hashrate i.e. about 171 million terahashes per second at the time of writing this article.
Riot also intends to buy a large mining center in Texas. The mining company stated that it would purchase Whinstone, a company owned by Northern Data, for $650 million. The agreement would likely pave way for Riot to conduct its mining operations in Texas. Notably, the installed power capacity is 750 megawatts and a further 300 megawatts power production is planned.
