Bitcoin’s price has fallen by more than three months, but US crypto miners aren’t backing down from adding more powerful computers to their operations.
A large chunk of Bitcoin mining occurred in the US, based on IP addresses from so-called hashers that employed certain crypto mining pools last year, according to Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data.
US-headquartered GEM Mining group of enterprises and Marathon Digital Holdings told Cointelegraph this week that they expect their respective operations to double in size this year by ramping up the number of hardware at their facilities.
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Marathon Digital is one of North America’s largest enterprise Bitcoin self-mining businesses.
Marathon extended its deal with Compute North in December of last year to host over 100,000 of Marathon’s previously bought Bitcoin mining rigs across numerous sites.
200K Machines For Crypto Miners
Charlie Schumacher, Marathon Digital’s vice president of corporate communications, said the operation is proceeding with plans to install nearly 200,000 new machines by the end of the year to bolster what is “arguably the future of the global monetary system.”
According to GEM Mining chief executive officer John Warren, the company aims to have around 32,000 rigs online by the end of 2022.
The fact that miners are extending their operations is unexpected.
Late last week, questions were raised concerning the capital efficiency of American crypto miners, as many miners were said to be cash-strapped and in need of a boost following Bitcoin’s recent price decline.
Marathon filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on February 13 to dispose of up to 750 million shares of its stock.
Total crypto market cap at $7690.5 billion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Bitcoin Down
With Bitcoin trading at roughly $38,500 as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – well below its all-time high of approximately $69,000 – miners are selling at an inopportune time. Electricity and equipment bills, on the other hand, must be paid.
According to data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, Bitcoin miners have shifted from net hodlers to net sellers after months of being hodlers.
Both Warren and Schumacher acknowledged the prospect of price volatility in the coming months.
Schumacher declined to comment on whether the market is approaching a “crypto winter,” but emphasized that his company is focused on risk mitigation and “ensuring that we can pivot.”
“We have no influence over the Bitcoin price, but we do have power over how we react to the market,” he said, adding they are optimistic they are in a position “to take advantage of opportunities.”
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Featured image from PYMNTS.com, chart from TradingView.com