BT Daily News: Bitcoin Mining Industry Reveals Mergers, Hashrate Increases, and New Facilities Amid Market Downturns
1. Rhodium Raises $11.9M, Reveals Merger with Silversun Technologies
A recently filed SEC Form D registration explains that Rhodium Enterprises, Inc. raised $11.9 million this month, according to a notice of an exempt offering of securities filing published on September 19, 2022. Ten days later, Rhodium and Silversun Technologies detailed the two companies will be merging.The newly merged operation plans to apply for a public listing and the business combination is expected to settle by the end of the year. The Texas-based Rhodium utilizes “proprietary tech to self-mine bitcoin,” according to the firm’s website.
2. Cleanspark Hashrate Exceeds 4 Exahash per Second
Following a number of announcements during the last three months, Cleanspark, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) revealed on Tuesday that the company’s mining operations have surpassed 4 exahash per second (EH/s). Cleanspark details that the company is on schedule to meet the end-of-the-year goal of around 5 EH/s. Cleanspark’s CEO Zach Bradford said during the 4 EH/s milestone announcement that bitcoin mining can decarbonize the economy.“Bitcoin mining, when done with an eye toward low-carbon energy sources, can hasten the decarbonization of our economy,” Bradford remarked. “No other industry can do this like Bitcoin. In addition to being a technology that we believe will revolutionize our monetary system, Bitcoin is also a technology capable of revolutionizing our energy systems, making them more resilient, abundant, and clean.”
3. CFTC Chair Says Crypto Regulations Could Double Bitcoin Price
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Rostin Behnam said on Thursday that Bitcoin might “double in price” if it traded in a CFTC-regulated market.The chairman added that the crypto industry had “a massive opportunity for institutional inflows that will only occur if there’s a regulatory structure.”
The wave of regulation heading for crypto might not be a bad thing, though, according to Behnam. “Non-bank [crypto] institutions thrive on regulation, they thrive on regulatory certainty, they thrive on a level playing field, [...] because they are the smartest, the fastest and the most well-resourced,” he said.
The chairman added that he supported a bill introduced by the Senate Agriculture Committee which would designate the CFTC as the main regulator of the crypto industry. Such a demarcation would finally help clarify who is responsible for regulating the industry in the United States, which is something carried out by both the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission at the moment.
4. Miners Take Off for The Great – and More Profitable – North
Bitcoin (BTC) miners across Europe are fleeing to the northern parts of Norway and Sweden to cut power costs as energy prices skyrocket on the continent and bitcoin flatlines.Mining economics has stopped making sense on much of the continent. Natural gas prices reached a record high of 321 euros ($309) per megawatt-hour (mWh) in August, compared with 27 euros a year ago. Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin has lost about 60% of its value this year and is hovering around $20,000.
Energy in the northernmost parts of Norway and Sweden is as much as 10 times cheaper than in the southern parts of those countries. That’s because the countries are split into different energy markets. The Nordics have a higher proportion of electricity coming from renewable energy compared with the rest of Europe – almost 100%. But the southern parts of the countries are connected to European markets, which means higher demand and thus higher prices.
Power costs a pretty penny in much of Europe. In the second quarter, the average wholesale price of energy in France and Germany was more than double what it is in the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency. In mid-September, following measures to curb the price hikes, the wholesale price of power in many European countries was still more than 350 euros ($350) per megawatt-hour, several times more than what miners are looking for to break even.
5. ETHW Surges as Binance Launches Ethereum Proof-of-Work Mining Pool
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance today announced an Ethereum Proof-of-Work (ETHW) mining service for its users. Binance further announced Thursday that those who take part in the ETHW pool will not be charged a fee until October 29.Mining pools are formed when groups of crypto miners want to share resources to allow other miners to work with them and collectively have a better chance of processing a transaction. Binance gives its users the chance to join pools with a service called Binance Pool.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, moved over to proof of stake in a long-anticipated transition known as the merge. The long and well-publicized switch to a new consensus mechanism made the cryptocurrency far more energy efficient by eliminating the need for miners and replacing them with validators who instead stake cryptocurrency and don’t use expensive and energy-intensive machines to secure the network.
But ahead of the merge, prominent Chinese miner Chandler Guo launched a campaign to oppose the merge because he wanted to keep miners in work.
The result was ETHW—a completely new cryptocurrency via a hard fork which still uses proof-of-work mining.